Air India, BPCL sale by March 2020: Finance Minister

New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has announced that the government plans to wrap up the sale of Air India and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) by March 2020.

The Finance Minister said that there is a "lot of interest" among investors about the sale of Air India as seen in the international roadshows carried out by the government.

"We are moving on both with the expectation that we can complete them this year. The ground realities will play out," Sitharaman said.

She said the strategic disinvestment of the two state-run companies is critical for the government to meet its disinvestment target of Rs 1 trillion for the current fiscal year.

The government had to shelve plans for Air India's stake sale earlier due to lukewarm response by investors.

The Union government took measures to reverse the economic slowdown at the right time and several sectors are coming out of distress, the report quoted Sitharaman as saying.

She said the industry captains had contributed to improving their balance sheets and many of them were also mulling fresh investments.

The Finance Minister said she expected GST collections to revive following an improvement in sales in some segments as well as government's recent efforts to plug leakages.