Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL) shares are likely to spurt on Thursday on stock exchanges in response to the company securing orders to supply electronic voting machines (EVMs) on Wednesday. The Rs 1,009-crore order will be split between the Bengaluru-based defence PSU and Electronics Corporation of India Ltd. (ECIL), Hyderabad.
The new EVMs will be used in elections in the coming years, including the Lok Sabha polls due in 2019.
This year saw elections in five states, including Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Assam.
Each EVM consists of one controlling unit and one ballot unit.
"The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved the proposal of Election Commission for the purchase of 4,10,000 Ballot Units (BUs) and 3,14,000 Control Units (CUs) during 2017-18 and 4,35,306 Ballot Units and 71,716 control units during 2018-19 at a tentative unit cost of Rs.7,700/- and Rs.9,300 respectively. The total estimated cost will be Rs.1,009.6 crore," according to an official statement.
BEL shares closed at Rs 1,461 on Wednesday on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).
Last December, the two companies got a fillip to their EVM business when the Election Commission of India (ECIL) got an "in principle" approval from the union law ministry to buy 13,95,648 new balloting units and 9,30,482 control units at an estimated cost of Rs 5,511 crore in a staggered manner, between 2015-16 and 2018-19.
