Oil min seeks cash subsidy of Rs 105,525 crore for FY13

The Oil Ministry has sought Rs 05,525 crore from the Finance Ministry this fiscal to ubsidise diesel and cooking fuel, the Lok Sabha was informed oday.
    
State-owned fuel retailers are likely to end the fiscal ith a revenue loss of over Rs 1,63,000 crore on sale of iesel, domestic cooking gas (LPG) and kerosene at government- ontrolled rates that are way lower than cost.
    
Of this, close to Rs 60,000 crore will come from upstream ompanies Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), Oil India Ltd and AIL India. For the rest, the oil ministry has asked finance ministry to give cash subsidy.
   
"An amount of Rs 105,252 crore has been sought by Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas at the time of revised estimates
(RE) 2012-13 for compensation of oil marketing companies in respect of under recovery (loss) on sale of the sensitive oil products," Minister of State for Finance Namo Narain Meena said in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha.
    
In response to a separate question, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Panabaaka Lakshmi said the government has promised cash support of Rs 30,000 crore to cover a part of the Rs 85,586 crore revenue loss on fuel sales during April-September.
    
Upstream oil firms gave Rs 30,170 crore, leaving a balance Rs 25,417 crore uncovered, she said.
    
State retailers currently lose Rs 10.19 per litre on diesel, Rs 32.87 a litre on kerosene and Rs 478.50 per 14.2-kg subsidised LPG cylinder.
   
"The subsidy requirement for the current year is projected keeping in view the comparatively high prices of crude oil in international market and depreciation of rupee against USD," Meena said.
    
Upstream firms ONGC, OIL and GAIL share a part of the revenues that retailers lose on diesel and cooking fuel sales. Their share to begin with was 33 per cent of the revenue loss on fuel sales but has slowly risen to 40 per cent.