With the status of Navratna company, CPCL will have financial independence of investing up to ₹1,000 crore without seeking approval from the central government

Chennai Petroleum Corporation Limited (CPCL) will now be a ‘Navratna’ central public sector enterprise (CPSE), Finance Ministry announced on Friday.

“Union Finance Minister has approved the upgradation of Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd (CPCL) to Navratna CPSE. CPCL has become the 28th Navratna amongst the CPSEs,” a social media post by the Department of Public Enterprises said. CPCL is a CPSE under Oil Ministry.

For the fiscal of 2025-26, the company delivered a standout performance, with net profit jumping over 17 times to ₹3,062 crore from ₹174 crore in the previous fiscal. Revenue for the fiscal rose 9 per cent to ₹78,611 crore, up from ₹71,050 crore.

Its share prices closed at around ₹1,098 on Friday after losing nearly 2 per cent over closing price of Thursday.

Financial independence

With the status of Navratna company, CPCL will have financial independence of investing up to ₹1,000 crore without seeking approval from the central government.

It will also be allowed to invest up to 15 per cent of their net worth on a single project, or 30 per cent of their net worth in a given year, subject to a cap of ₹1,000 crore.

It can incur capital expenditure on purchase of new items or for replacement, without any monetary ceiling. It can also enter into technology joint ventures or strategic alliances.

To qualify as a Navratna, a CPSE having a Miniratna-I status must obtain an ‘Excellent’ or ‘Very Good’ memorandum of understanding (MoU) rating in three out of the last five years and have a composite score of 60 or more in six selected performance indicators.

These include net profit to net worth, manpower cost to total cost of production, profit before depreciation, interest and taxes (PBDIT) to capital employed, profit before Interest and taxes to turnover, earnings per share and inter-sectoral performance

According to company’s website, CPCL is a government of India enterprise and a group company of IndianOil. Formerly known as Madras Refineries Limited (MRL), the company was formed as a joint venture in 1965 between the Government of India, AMOCO, and National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC). The present shareholders are IOCL, NICO and others holding 51.89 per cent, 15.40 per cent and 32.71 per cent shares respectively.

The company claims it has one of the most complex refineries of its kind in the country, producing an array of value-added petroleum products. It also pioneered key initiatives in several areas such as process optimisation, technology absorption, energy conservation, waste land reclamation and environment management, it said.

Published on June 19, 2026