The divestment ministry has proposed to offer only 3 per cent stake of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd to its employees at a concessional rate, as against 5 per cent equity of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd likely to be sold to its employees.

According to the Cabinet note prepared by the ministry for the strategic sale of HPCL's equity, the employees will be entitled to purchase 1,000 shares at Rs 90 a share.

The note says the price of the HPCL scrip on the Bombay Stock Exchange on December 12 was Rs 270.

"If the employees of HPCL are offered the shares at one-third the market price as in the case of Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd, then for Rs 90,000, each employee of HPCL will be entitled to purchase 1,000 shares," it adds.

Taking into account the number of employees on March 31, 2002, the number of shares to be offered to the HPCL employees works out to 1.14 crore (11.4 million).

"This works out to around 3 per cent of the equity of HPCL. Hence, we may sell 3 per cent of the equity to the employees of HPCL after the strategic sale," the note says.

On the other hand, the ministry has proposed to offer 1,250 shares of BPCL to each of its employees at around Rs 72 a share. This also works out to around Rs 90,000 payable by each employee for acquiring the shares.