More subsidy for oil PSUs

With this, the government has paid a total of Rs 40,912 crore in subsidy to oil companies in 2010-11 financial year, an oil ministry official said.

“The finance ministry issued letter giving Rs 11,027 crore in cash compensation to Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Rs 4,595 crore to Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) and Rs 4,379 crore to Hindustan Petroleum,” the official said.

The cash subsidy payout is more than half of the over Rs 78,000 crore that the three firms lost on selling auto and cooking fuel below their imported cost in 2010-11 fiscal.

Upstream firms like Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) will chip in about Rs 25,750 crore, leaving the fuel retailing firms to fed over Rs 11,000 crore of revenue losses by themselves.