GAIL (India) Ltd will not have to share oil subsidy in the third and fourth quarter of 2013-14.

“The Government has communicated to us that our subsidy burden is capped at Rs 1,400 crore for the current financial year. We have already shared that, which means we will not have to share subsidy in the third and fourth quarter,” said GAIL Chairman B.C Tripathi said.

This is specific to GAIL, the Chairman said, adding that he is not aware if a similar cap has been put on for ONGC and Oil India, who also share the oil subsidy burden.

In 2012-13, GAIL forked out Rs 2,687 crore for oil subsidy.

Q2 profit after tax

GAIL (India) Ltd on Friday said its second quarter 2013-14 profit after tax has dropped to Rs 916 crore against Rs 985 crore in the same quarter previous year.

“The realisation from LPG and petrochemical sales was higher. But, we could not monetise the same into our profit after tax because of lower supply of gas for our LPG plant and also less gas available for transmission,” Tripathi told media persons.

The government-owned company's net sales increased by 22.7 per cent year on year to Rs 13,945 crore during July-September 2013-14.

“Looking ahead, our concerns on lower utilisation of GAIL’s pipelines remain. Hence, we maintain our neutral rating on the stock,” said Bhavesh Chauhan, senior research Analyst at Angel Broking.

>siddhartha.s@thehindu.co.in

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