Oil ministry seeks $1.9 bln subsidy for April-June: source

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's oil ministry has sought 114.51 billion rupees cash subsidy from the finance ministry to partly offset the revenue losses of state retailers for selling fuel at below-market prices in April-June, an oil ministry source said.

The source said state-run oil and gas producers have been asked to give a discount of 149.06 billion rupees on the sale of crude oil and refined products to state-owned oil marketing companies for the April-June quarter.

Fuel retailers Indian Oil Corp , Hindustan Petroleum Corp and Bharat Petroleum Corp sell diesel, kerosene and cooking gas at subsidised rates to protect the poor and tame inflation.

 

"Because of the falling rupee and firming global crude oil prices, we have asked the finance ministry to enhance the budgetary provision for fuel subsidies to 630 billion rupees for this fiscal year," the source said. (Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Editing by Prateek Chatterjee)