The Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) will now take a call on Vedanta Group company Sterlite's proposal for buying residual stake in Hindustan Zinc and Balco.
This was agreed upon in a meeting of the Committee of Secretaries here on Wednesday. A senior Government official told Business Line that “no date has been fixed for the EGoM yet as we first need to work on Sterlite's proposal.”
Sterlite has offered to pay a total of Rs 17,000 crore for buying residual stake in Hindustan Zinc and Balco. The metal major's offer consists of nearly Rs 15,000 crore for over 25 per cent Government stake in Hindustan Zinc, and nearly Rs 2,000 crore for 49 per cent Government stake in Balco. Both the companies were strategically divested between 2000-02.
In July last year, the Vedanta Group Chairman, Mr Anil Agarwal, had written a letter to the Prime Minister, seeking clarification on the Government's stand. After that, an EGoM, headed by Mr Pranab Mukherjee, decided to seek Sterlite's offer proposal.