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The combined loss of oil marketing companies during the April to June period of this financial year stood at Rs 4,403 crore, the minister of state for petroleum and natural gas Panabaaka Lakshmi.
“They could report meager profits in previous years only after taking into account the cash assistance provided by the Government and the discount on sale of crude oil and product offered by upstream oil companies,” Lakshmi informed the Rajya Sabha.
The Minister added that in order to insulate the common man from the impact of rise in international oil prices and the domestic inflationary conditions, the Government continues to modulate the retail selling price of diesel in retail. However, kerosene and subsidized domestic LPG and their prices have not been increased in line with changes in the international market. As a result, the Public Sector Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) have incurred under-recovery of Rs 1,61,029 crore during 2012-13 and Rs 25,579 crore during April-June, 2013.
Though, diesel prices were decontroleed in January this year and a cap of nine cylinders was put for domestic customers of LPG, it hardly had any impact on under recovery due to the fall of rupee and rise in international prices.
Meanwhile, petroleum minister M Veerappa Moily said today that the estimated demand of petroleum products in the country during 2016-17 would be 186.2 Million Metric Tonne (MMT). The estimated demand of petrol, diesel and LPG is 16,335 MT, 73,500 MT and 16,712 MT respectively in the country in the year 2013-14.
