ANKARA, Nov 26 (AFP) - Turkey's top administrative court upheld Friday a decision to cancel the sale of TUPRAS, the country's main oil refiner, in a new setback for the government's struggling privatization program, Anatolia news agency reported.
In June, a lower court had ruled for a trade union that had taken legal action to scrap the sale of 65.76 percent of TUPRAS to a joint venture between the German-based chemicals company Efremov-Kautschuk, an affiliate of the Russian oil producer Tatneft, and Turkey's Zorlu Holding company.
Turkish authorities had approved the sale in February, following a tender in which Efremov-Kautschuk and Zorlu Holding made the highest bid of 1.302 billion dollars.
The lower court ruled that the tender was against the public interest and in breach of competition laws because it did not include an auction.
It also said documents presented by Efremov-Kautschuk did not provide all of the company's required financial data.
In confirming the ruling Friday, The Council of State, Turkey's top administrative court, said it would release its reasoning later, Anatolia reported.
Anti-privatization groups and trade unions have accused the government of selling the company below its real value.
Ankara is under pressure from the International Monetary Fund to speed up privatization, a key element of a 16-billion-dollar stand-by deal aimed at putting the crisis-hit Turkish economy back on track.
The government's privatization program for 2004, hit by a series of legal snags and delays, is behind target.
With the total processing capacity of its six refineries totaling 32 million tonnes per year, TUPRAS controls about 86 percent of the country's refinery capacity, according to company statistics.
It ranks itself as the seventh biggest refiner in Europe.
The remaining shares of the company have been sold publicly since 1991.
11/26/2004 16:05 GMT - AFP