The Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) will be privatised by March 2020. Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said that the government will wrap up the sale of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) by March next year.

Earlier, the Central government has decided not to allow any of the public sector units to bid for the investment in the BPCL. Prior to that NRL and State government has launched a joint bid to buy all the remaining shares to keep the BPCL in the public sector.

In aninterview with the TOI, Sitharaman also said that State-run airline AirIndia will be sold by March.

Itmay be mentioned here that BPCL holds 61.65 per cent stake in the NRL while OilIndia Limited (OIL) has 26 per cent stake. The Government of Assam has 12.35per cent stake in the refinery.

NRL was set up as per the Assam accord of 1985. The All Assam Students' Union (AASU) which is one of the signatories of Accord, and other organizations have been staging protests against its privatisation.