IOC Paradip to start ops in Nov '12, may miss tax sops

Indian Oil Corp's (IOC) Rs 29,777 crore Paradip refinery in Orissa will be commissioned by November 2012, a seven month delay from earlier plan that may deny the state-owned firm income tax breaks.

Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Jitin Prasad today informed Lok Sabha in a written reply that the "anticipated date of commission" of the 15 million tonne Paradip refinery was "November, 2012".

The Finance Ministry had on May 30, 2008 notified eight new and expansion projects of public sector firms, including Paradip, which were eligible for seven-year income tax holiday.

The tax holiday, which had been ended for private firms, was subject to the condition that the PSU firm "begins refining of mineral oil not later than March 31, 2012".

IOC Chairman B M Bansal had yesterday stated that the Paradip refinery will begin operations before March 31, 2012 and would be eligible for tax breaks.

Prasada said two other greenfield or new refinery projects - Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd's Rs 11,397-crore Bina refinery in Madhya Pradesh and the Rs 18,919-crore Bhatinda unit being put up by Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd and Mittal Energy - would come up before March 2012.

The 6 million tonne Bina refinery would be commissioned by September 2010 while 9 million tonne Bhatinda refinery would begin operations by May 2011.