The government has decided to offload 5 per cent stake in the state-owned company Oil and Natural Gas Corporation- ONGC through the auction route on the 1st of next month. It may fetch the exchequer about 12,000 crore rupees. Oil Minister Jaipal Reddy said this while talking to reporters after the meeting of the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) chaired by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee. He said, the ONGC stake sale through the auction route will take place in couple of days and notices will be send to stock exchanges tonight. The government owns 74.14 per cent stake in ONGC and proposes to offload 427.77 million shares or 5 per cent equity.