Following the massive protests by the people of Assam, the government of India has decided not to disinvest the Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL). The decision was taken by the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the cabinet approved the strategic disinvestment of oil refiner and retailer Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL), but NRL will be carved out before the stake sale and it will not be disinvested. The refinery will become a separate entity to be later hived off to another state-run firm.

It may be mentioned here that the BPCL owns 61 per cent in NRL which will be acquired by another PSU. The government intends to sell its entire 53.29 per cent stake of BPCL to a strategic investor as part of a larger plan to meet its disinvestment target of Rs 1.05 trillion for this fiscal year.

Now both the Oil India Limited(OIL) and Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) have vied for it but the OIL has better chances as it already has stake in the cash-rich company.