The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has asked the Finance Ministry for a whopping Rs 58,000 crore to make up the losses incurred by oil PSUs which are being forced by the Government to sell diesel, kerosene and domestic liquefied petroleum gas much below cost.
As on fortnight beginning October 16, the three PSU oil companies are incurring losses of Rs 6.61 per litre on diesel, Rs 24.63 per litre on kerosene and Rs 270 on every cylinder of domestic LPG for selling below the cost.
The daily loss has reached Rs 272 crore while for the first six months of the current fiscal accumulated loss of three oil companies is estimated at Rs 64,900 crore.
A senior Petroleum Ministry official said, “We have sent the proposal to be included in the second supplementary demands for grants.” This amount is for the first nine months of FY 2011-12.
“For the first quarter, we have requested for Rs 29,000 crore, while for the second quarter the amount is Rs 14,000 crore and for the third it is Rs 15,000 crore,” the official added.
The Government had provided Rs 23,640 crore for entire current financial year in the budget for the petroleum subsidy, but this was exhausted in reimbursing the dues of the last fiscal year.
A senior Finance Ministry official said that letter for Rs 15,000 crore cash compensation had already been given and the amount will be provided in the second supplementary. He refused to comment on demand beyond Rs 15,000 crore.
The oil PSUs are also compensated by ONGC, Oil India and GAIL. They have already reimbursed their share in the first two quarters with latest of approximately Rs 7,000 crore for the second quarter.