IOC posts near 15 percent rise in Q4 profit

State oil marketer Indian Oil Corp (IOC) Thursday announced a 14.5 percent rise in net profit for the fourth quarter ended March 2013.

Net profit in the quarter in question rose to Rs.14,512.81 crore from Rs.12,670.43 crore in the same period last year, IOC chairman R.S. Butola told mediapersons here.

The company received fuel subsidy for more than one quarter during the period as the government did not pay any cash subsidy in the third quarter ended December.

Of the Rs.53,278.07 crore cash subsidy paid by government to IOC for selling diesel and cooking gas (LPG) below cost during 2012-13, the company received Rs.23,709.54 crore in the fourth quarter alone.

According to Butola, of the Rs.85,793 crore IOC revenue it lost on selling diesel and cooking fuel below cost during the full fiscal, it got Rs.53,278.07 crore from the government and another Rs.31,966.84 crore from upstream firms like state explorer ONGC.

"After accounting for the cash subsidy and upstream assistance, we absorbed Rs.548.49 crore under-recoveries (revenue loss)," Butola said.

IOC is currently losing Rs.3.73 a litre on diesel, Rs.27.93 a litre on kerosene and Rs.378.38 per 14.2 kg LPG cylinder.

Butola said that in the fourth quarter, IOC earned $2.39 on every barrel of crude oil converted to fuel, compared to $2.26 per barrel gross refining margin in the same period the previous year.

For the 2012-13 fiscal year, the company reported a net profit of Rs.5,005.17 crore, up 26.5 percent from Rs.3,954.62 crore in the previous financial year. The turnover increased 12 percent to Rs.447,096.41 crore from Rs.398,476.63 crore.

Total sales amounted to 76.237 million tonnes, while refinery throughput was 54.65 million tonnes. The company sold 1,824 kilotonnes of petrochem in the fiscal year as compared to 1480 kt in the previous year.

IOC shares closed Thursday 1.03 percent higher at Rs.294.80 on the BSE.