IOC to add 1,000 Kisan Seva Kendras: Behuria

New Delhi, Sept 9 (UNI) Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOC) has said it will add another thousand Kisan Seva Kendras or retail outlets where seeds and fertilisers along with petroleum products will be available for the farmers in rural areas.

''We will open 1,000 retail outlets by the end of next year,'' IOC Chairman Sarthak Behuria said here.

The company has already opened 1,400 retail outlets.

Due to softening crude oil prices coupled with appreciation in the value of rupee against the dollar has brought down the under-recovery on sale of fuel of IOC from Rs 110 crore per day earlier this year to Rs 80 crore per day.

IOC had recently said that plans to sell oil bonds worth Rs 1,500 to Rs 2,000 crore in October to offset losses incurred due to the skyrocketing international crude oil prices.

From April onwards, the company has lined up Rs 4,000 crore by liquidating the oil bonds.

IOC Chairman Sarthak Behuria said he expects Rs 24,000-Rs 30,000 crore in oil bonds for the entire industry to bear some of the losses the state-run oil companies have had to suffer on account of higher oil prices in global markets.

The estimated PSU oil firms' losses on the sale of petrol, diesel, LPG and kerosene is at Rs 52,162 crore, but the Finance Ministry is yet to work out the losses.

Crude oil prices have touched 74 dollar a barrel today, within sight of its record high, as OPEC kept a lid on output in the run-up to its September 11 ministerial meeting. India imports more than 70 per cent of its crude oil requirement.

UNI