However, the transfer of Balmer Lawrie Ltd from IBP to another oil PSU will be completed during the current financial year. This transfer has to be done before the IBP disvestment process as this would help the government in fetching a better price for the oil marketing PSU's shares. In addition to this, the government is also pushing the restructuring process of the four stand-alone refineries and the transaction of shares of the refineries from the government to Bharat Petroleum and Indian Oil is also expected to be completed by the end of the current financial year.

The government has already appointed HSBC Securities to carry out the valuation of Balmer Lawrie, a subsidiary of IBP, before the transfer of its shares to another oil company. A number of global investment advisors are advising on the IBP sell-off, besides suggesting the mechanism on how Balmer Lawrie shares could be transferred. Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum are the two PSUs which are likely to be transferred the shares of Balmer Lawrie.

It may be mentioned here that IBP is the first public sector oil company to be put on the block as per the government's divestment plans for the oil sector.

All those firms with investments of at least Rs 2,000 crore in any infrastructure project in the hydrocarbon sector in the country would be eligible for the bidding.

Leading domestic and foreign oil and gas companies like Reliance Industries, Royal Dutch Shell, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) are in the race for picking up stake in IBP.

The government had earlier taken a hard stand by making it compulsory for interested companies to invest Rs 2,000 crore in the refining sector of the country.

Disinvestment for HPCL, BPCL and Indian Oil Corporation will be carried out on a case to case basis, while the disinvestment for other public sector units will be carried out immediately.

IBP, a stand-alone marketing company, has over 1,500 retail outlets in the country with a major presence in Eastern India.