Petroleum Min seeks Rs 11,853 cr oil bonds

The Petroleum Ministry has sought oil bonds worth Rs 11,853 crore for state-run fuel retailers to make up for the losses they incurred on selling domestic LPG and kerosene below cost during the first half of the current fiscal.

Three fuel retailers Indian Oil Corp (IOC (IOC.NS : 291.6 +1.3)), Bharat Petroleum (BPCL.NS : 520.8 +12.9) Corp (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL (HPCL.BO : 340.7 +5.3)) lost Rs 15,856 crore in revenues on selling petrol, diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene below cost during the first half of the current fiscal, a ministry official said.

Of this, Rs 11,853 crore is revenue lost on LPG and kerosene, the remaining Rs 4,003 crore was on account of petrol and diesel.

While the Government had committed to meeting the revenue loss arising from its dictate of not increasing price of domestic LPG and kerosene in step with the cost, non-issuance of oil bonds till now has led HPCL and BPCL report net losses in the July-September quarter. However, IOC barely scrapped through.

HPCL reported a net loss of Rs 136.68 crore, while BPCL posted a net loss of Rs 158.77 crore. IOC was slightly better off, registering a net profit of Rs 284.36 crore.