New Delhi, Nov 28 (IANS): The government has decided to go ahead with the RFP (request for proposal) stage for the divestment of chopper services company Pawan Hans Ltd (PHL).

The stage commences when a RFP or tender document is issued. The document provides short-listed parties with overall information about the company which is useful in making their financial bids.

The decision was taken after an inter-ministerial panel which is headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley met here.

According to a senior government official, the transaction advisor has been asked to go ahead with the issuance of RFP document together with the draft share purchase agreement (SPA).

The official told reporters that the PHL sale process will be completed within the current fiscal and that healthy response has been received during the initial stage.

In September, the government had extended the initial bid submission deadline for the divestment of chopper services company.

The time period for submission of EoI (Expression of Interest) had been extended up to September 19, 2018 from the earlier date of September 12.

On April 13, the Central government had invited 'Expression of Interest' (EoI) to divest its 51 per cent stake in chopper services company.

The Preliminary Information Memorandum (PIM) inviting the EoI for the strategic divestment was issued on April 13, only days after the government had withdrawn an earlier PIM for the proposed divestment.

The Central government owns 51 per cent equity of the company, while ONGC holds the rest 49 per cent stake.

PHL was set up as a public sector undertaking under the administrative control of the Ministry of Civil Aviation to primarily provide helicopter services for the exploration activities of ONGC and to the northeast region.