Petroleum Minister Murli Deroa has asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to cut customs duty on crude oil to avert financial bankruptcy of public sector oil companies who face a whopping Rs 130,000 crore revenue loss on sale of fuel in the current fiscal.With crude oil prices hovering over $100 per barrel, Deora had an s-o-s meeting with Prime Minister yesterday evening to seek his intervention in protecting fuel retailers - Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum - from bankruptcy."Just like the government scrapped import duty on edible crude oil (in the meeting of the cabinet committee on prices on April 1), 5% customs duty on petroleum crude oil should also be made nil," Deora told reporters here.IOC, BPCL and HPCL, who together lost Rs 77,304.50 crore on sale of petrol, diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene in 2007-08, are projected to lose Rs 130,000 crore in the current fiscal."Oil bonds being given by the government are not enough," Deora said. Deora asked Prime Minister to raise the quantum of oil bonds after Singh is believed to have rejected the idea of nil customs duty on petroleum crude oil.
