| Govt to give Rs. 25,000 crore additional subsidy to fuel retailers | | | Agencies
New Delhi, Mar 24 : The government will pay Rs. 25,000 crore additional cash subsidy to state-owned fuel retailers to cover for the revenue they lost on selling auto and cooking fuel below cost this fiscal. The Finance Ministry has so far provided Rs. 55,000 crore to Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) to cover for part of the revenue they lost on selling diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene at government-controlled rates that are way below the cost. "Another Rs. 25,000 crore is likely to come next month," Oil Secretary Vivek Rae said.
The three firms are together projected to end the 2012-13 fiscal with an under-recovery or revenue loss of Rs. 161,343 crore on the sale of diesel and cooking fuel. Of this, about Rs. 60,000 crore is to be made good by upstream firms like ONGC. After accounting for the Rs. 25,000 crore expected, the total government cash subsidy would come to Rs. 80,000 crore. "There (would) still be Rs. 21,000 crore-odd uncovered under-recovery which will be carried forward in the next fiscal," he said.
Speaking at the National Editors' Conference, Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily said the government is committed to making available essential fuels, particularly cooking fuels, to the common man at affordable prices.
"The retail selling price of diesel, PDS kerosene and domestic LPG are being modulated to insulate the common man from the impact of rise in international oil prices and domestic inflationary condition," he said. The under-recoveries incurred as a result are being subsidised by the government, with the support of upstream oil & gas companies.
In order to reduce under-recovery and restrict the impact on the consumers, the government has decided to stagger the increase of price of diesel in the range of 40-50 paise per litre per month, sell diesel to bulk consumers at non-subsidised market determined price, and restrict the supply of 14.2-kg domestic LPG cylinders to nine per consumer per annum.
"Despite these measures, the under-recoveries currently are Rs. 8.64 per litre for diesel, Rs. 33.43 per litre for kerosene and Rs. 439 per cylinder for domestic LPG," he said, adding the oil marketing companies are currently losing Rs. 407 crore per day on fuel sales. |
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