PSU oil firms to get Rs 12,000 cr in cash

The government will give state fuel retailers Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) Rs 12,000 crore to partly compensate them for losses on LPG and kerosene by March 31.

IOC would get Rs 7,100.18 crore, BPCL Rs 2,370.77 crore and HPCL Rs 2,529.05 crore, Minister of State for Finance Namo Narain Meena said in a written reply to Lok Sabha here.

The Rs 12,000-crore compensation would be given as cash from Budget, a departure from the practice of issuing bonds to make up for fuel losses.

The compensation is, however, less than Rs 20,989 crore sought by the retailers to make up for the losses they incurred on selling domestic LPG and kerosene below cost during April-December period.

IOC had sought Rs 12,419 crore, BPCL Rs 4,147 crore and HPCL Rs 4,423 crore, he said, but did not say if the Finance Ministry was inclined to release more money.

State-run fuel retailers are projected to lose Rs 47,400 crore on selling petrol, diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene below cost. Of these, the losses on petrol and diesel are made up by upstream firms like Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) while, Rs 31,574 crore revenue loss on cooking fuel is to be made good by the government.

The compensation indicated till now leaves a gap of Rs 19,574 crore.

Retailers currently sell petrol at a loss of Rs 4.97 a litre, diesel at Rs 3.27 per litre, kerosene at Rs 16.91 per litre and LPG at a loss of Rs 267.39 per cylinder.