Govt aims to sell Air India, other firms by March 2020

India aims to sell two or three state-owned firms to local or foreign firms to raise up to 600 billion rupees ($8.5 billion) by March 2020, a senior Finance Ministry official said on Monday.

The government planned to sell Bharat Petroleum Corp, logistics firm Container Corp of India Ltd and debt-laden Air India before the end of the 2019/20 financial year, the official told reporters.

The Prime Minister’s Office had voiced reservations about the Finance Ministry’s past sales of stakes in one state entity to another, the official said.