The government today rejected the demand of Reliance Industries for compensation equal to public sector oil firms to make up for the losses it suffers on petrol and diesel sales."There is no question of giving compensation to Reliance," Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said today.Reliance is losing Rs 3.37 per litre on petrol and Rs 5.77 a litre on diesel despite pricing the fuels about Rs 2.50 per litre higher than the price charged by PSU firms, which are compensated for the losses through a combination of discounts from upstream companies like ONGC and oil bonds."There is no need to favour only the PSU oil marketing companies (OMCs) in a partisan and non-transparent manner. Provision of similar support to the private sector does not increase the financial burden of the government since deninal of the support will only shift volumes from the private sector to PSUs to whom an equivalent subsidy will need to be paid," RIL had recently written to the petroleum ministry.Deora said the cabinet had, in June, decided on a burden sharing formula where the government, the oil firms and consumers were to share the impact of surging crude oil prices. "There is no proposal to give subsidy to Reliance," he said.Reliance had suggested an increase in the cess on domestic crude and using the revenue to moderate the excise duty on petrol and diesel so as to place all players at par. "Alternatively, oil bonds and upstream support should be extended to the private companies," it said.
