Govt to issue oil bonds worth Rs 12,000 cr by Oct 15

New Delhi, Sept 25 (UNI) The government may issue oil bonds worth Rs 12,000 crore by October 15, to partly offset the rising revenue losses incurred by the state-owned refiners for selling fuels below cost to retail consumers, Petroleum Secretary M S Srinivasan said today.

''A joint exercise between the petroleum ministry and finance ministry is going on. We keep apprising the cabinet on revenue losses so that the bonds can be released,'' Mr Srinivasan told reporters on the sidelines of a conference here.

He said the government is monitoring the skyrocketing prices of crude oil in the international market, which is a concern.

Earlier, the Secretary had said the total under-recovery on sale of petrol, diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene would be about Rs 55,000 crore at the end of this fiscal.

The under-recoveries of the three government oil marketing companies such as Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum Corportaion Ltd (BPCL) -- have risen to about Rs 200 crore per day for the first half of this month from around Rs 180 crore in the previous fortnight, as the Government has not permitted them to raise prices this year even as crude oil costs surged to a record.

Public sector oil marketing companies are demanding an increase of Rs 4.68 a litre in diesel prices, Rs 2.90 on gasoline, and a nearly threefold increase in kerosene prices and Rs 174.75 on a 14.2 kg cylinder of liquefied petroleum gas (LNG).

The oil refiners have processed 13.09 million tonnes of crude oil in August, up 8.2 per cent from 12.10 million tonnes a year earlier, while crude oil output in August rose 6.4 per cent to 2.87 million tonnes from 2.70 million tonnes a year earlier, according to an official statement released today.

UNI