"We have discussed the Basell issue and also taken stock of the proposed share transfer issue by the West Bengal government. Discussions are on, but no final decision has been made yet," said Tarun Das, chairman of the Chatterjee promoted Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd (HPL), in which the state government has a major stake.

The state government is to sell its 36 percent stake in HPL to The Chatterjee Group (TCG), which owns 43 percent of the company.

Once that happens, Chatterjee will be in a position to get HPL to invest in Basell. The state government, as a major shareholder in HPL, is not keen on the company investing in Basell.

In one of the biggest takeovers involving an Indian, a group of investors led by Chatterjee and Russian-born billionaire Leonard Blavatnik of Access Industries earlier this month inked a deal to buy Basell, the Netherlands-based company owned jointly by Royal Dutch/Shell and BASF.

The sticking point in the negotiations between TCG and the state government reportedly is the latter's insistence that Chatterjee fork out Rs.15 billion for acquiring its 36 percent stake upfront.

"HPL is growing on its own and Basell will help it grow further. The process is continuing and lots of things are happening on the European side. In principle, our decision is to go ahead with Basell," Chatterjee told reporters after the HPL board meeting.

State Commerce and Industry secretary Sabyasachi Sen represented the West Bengal government at the board meeting.

Valued at an estimated 4.4 billion euros ($5.7 billion), Basell's takeover is the largest acquisition abroad involving an Indian.

Basell is the world's largest producer of polypropylene and Europe's biggest maker of polyethelene.