Of the disinvestment target of Rs 1.75 lakh crore for FY22, the Centre has budgeted Rs 75,000 crore from the privatisation of some CPSEs such as BPCL and minority stake sales in CPSEs.

The Centre has received a final dividend of Rs 6,665 crore for FY21 from fuel retailer-cum-refiner BPCL, which is on the block for privatisation.

“Govt received final dividend of Rs 6,665 crore from BPCL for the FY 2020-21. This includes special dividend on account of gains especially on sale of BPCL’s stake in Numaligarh Refinery in March, 2021,” department of investment and public asset management (DIPAM) secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey tweeted.

In March 2021, BPCL had sold its entire 61.5% stake in Numaligarh Refinery in Assam to a consortium of Oil India, Engineers India and government of Assam for Rs 9,876 crore. The Centre owns a 52.98% stake in BPCL.

The board of directors of BPCL had earlier declared and distributed two Interim dividends during the year 2020-21, totalling to Rs 4,555 crore (Centre’s share about Rs 2,413 crore).

Of the disinvestment target of Rs 1.75 lakh crore for FY22, the Centre has budgeted Rs 75,000 crore from the privatisation of some CPSEs such as BPCL and minority stake sales in CPSEs.

In November 2020, multiple bidders including Vedanta, Apollo Global Management and Think Gas — showed interest in BPCL buyout.

The market value of the Centre’s 52.98% stake in BPCL was worth a little over Rs 49,200 crore at the current market prices (October 27, 2021).

The government is hopeful of receiving financial bids for its entire BPCL stake by December, 2021 .