| The merger of BPCL and Kochi Refineries Ltd (KRL), likely to be completed in the next two to three months, would help the combined entity to save Rs 150 crore a year on central sales tax. This is because, post-merger, products supplied by KRL to BPCL will be treated as stock transfer and not as sales, which suffers central sales tax.
According to a senior BPCL official, the company's retail petrol and diesel sales in south India is largely done out of products sourced from KRL.
Stake sale plan
According to sources, BPCL was also planning to offload its 3.37-crore shares, available through the swap deal, to raise resources primarily to meet working capital requirement and for funding expansion plan of Kochi Refineries.
The plan, however, may be put on hold for the time-being owing to fall in share prices of BPCL.
Having touched Rs 502 on the BSE in May this year, BPCL stock closed at Rs 352 on Tuesday.
Consequently, the value of the 3.37-crore shares has dropped from close to Rs 1,692 crore to Rs 1,186 crore.
Meanwhile, following the merger, BPCL would place before the board a fresh proposal for capacity expansion of Kochi Refineries from 7.5 million tonne to 9.5 million tonne.
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