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Our Bureau

New Delhi, Oct. 3 Fluctuating crude oil prices and currency (rupee) depreciation continue to put financial pressure on public sector oil refinery-cum-marketing company Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOC). The company’s crude oil import bill this fiscal is likely to rise 17.6 per cent.

“This fiscal the bill will be about $40 billion,” Mr Sarthak Behuria, Chairman IOC, told reporters here. The company would import 46-47 million tonne of crude oil this fiscal. “For every one rupee depreciation against the dollar, Rs 300 crore is added to our oil import cost,” he said adding that “the impact till now is Rs 1,200 crore.”

On the issue of changes in tax laws sought to enable sourcing of fuel from RIL’s export oriented unit refinery at Jamnagar being viable for IOC, he said, “We have appealed to the Government to do away with double taxation on products bought from Reliance’s Jamnagar refinery.”

The three public sector undertakings — IOC, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation – may need 5 million tonne of diesel during the fiscal. IOC has so far imported six lakh tonne of diesel and it may import 1.8 million tonne more during the year.

Reliance has converted Jamnagar into an export oriented unit. An export oriented unit is discouraged from selling products in the domestic market through levy of double taxation. The oil marketing companies would end up paying Rs 9.51 a litre more in taxes on petrol and Rs 2.85 per litre on diesel if they source it from RIL under the present dispensation.

“There is a premium on imports and it is beneficial for us to buy from Reliance. We hope the Government does something about double taxation,” he said.

Separately, RIL’s President (Refinery Business), Mr P. Raghavendra, said the company was willing to supply whatever quantities the public sector refiners need provided the tax issue was resolved.

More Stories on : Outlook | Petroleum | Exports & Imports

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