Government-owned gas utility GAIL India on Wednesday reported a 38% fall in net profit for the fourth quarter to R483 crore against R783 crore in the same period a year ago as fuel subsidy to retailers IOC, HPCL and BPCL went up by a half.

Turnover for the quarter jumped 18% to R10,454 crore. Net profit for the 2011-12 fiscal inched up by a marginal 3% to R3,654 crore from the previous fiscal despite a spectacular 24% jump in annual turnover to R40,281 crore.

?Due to a heavy growth in subsidy, a 17% growth in profit after tax for the whole fiscal has diminished to 3%,? GAIL India CMD BC Tripathi said. Tripathi said that for the full-fiscal, GAIL?s subsidy liability jumped 51% to R3,183 crore. Piped gas tariff revision by the regulator Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) affected the company to the extent of R283 crore.

GAIL?s gas transportation volume was impacted by the decline in gas production from Reliance Industries? KG-D6 block, but the company replaced the shortfall with imported LNG.

Tripathi said gas now commands $14-15 per million metric British thermal unit (mmBtu) if shipped to India from overseas spot markets ? about three times the regulated price gas is sold within the country.

GAIL will spend R7,354 crore this fiscal towards expansion, for which it would borrow R4,500 crore. Of this, $300 million (about R1,600 crore) would be foreign loans. The company would also issue Indian currency bonds in a week to raise R500 crore with a 50% green shoe option, Tripathi said.

During the year under review, petrochemical sales rose 7% to 448 tonne from a year ago, while LPG and other liquid hydrocarbon production jumped 5% to 1,439 tonne.