Govt issues oil bonds worth Rs 5,000 cr

New Delhi, Feb 12 (UNI) The Government today issued oil bonds to the tune of Rs 5,000 crore to oil marketing companies as compensation for under recoveries in their domestic LPG and Kerosene (PDS) operations during the current fiscal.

The fourth tranche of Government of India Special Bonds, 2024, were issued to Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), including IBP, for Rs 2,953 crore, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) for Rs 1,040 crore and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) for Rs 1,007 crore.

The investment in the special bonds by the banks will not be reckoned as an eligible investment in government securities by banks and insurance companies for their statutory requirements, a finance ministry statement said.

However, such investment by the insurance companies will be eligible to be reckoned as investment under ''other approved securities'' category as defined under Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Investment) Regulations, 2000.

Further, the investment by the Provident Funds, Gratuity Funds and Superannuation Funds in these bonds will be treated as an eligible investment under the administrative order of Finance Ministry.

The bonds will be transferable and eligible for market ready forward transactions (repo). The bonds, however, will not be an eligible underlying security for ready forward transactions (repo/reverse repo) with the Reserve Bank of India.

UNI