The corporation is likely to produce about 24 million tonnes of crude in the current financial year and would have to pay about Rs 900 per tonne as cess to OIDB, ONGC sources said on Sunday.

ONGC's payment to OIDB is mandatory and the corporation for the first seven months of the current fiscal had already paid about Rs 1,260 crore to the development board, the sources said. They said the amount paid by the corporation to OIDB would be used by the board for development of the oil sector on the whole and it was mandatory on the part of all the oil companies to pay the cess.

ONGC during the last financial year had paid about Rs 2,370 crore to OIDB .The corporation in turn could also take soft loans from OIDB for carrying out various exploratory works in the country, the sources said. ONGC had taken aloan of Rs 170 crore from OIDB for carrying out exploratory works with a very low rate of interest, the sources said. Meanwhile, the corporation had also taken up with the Oil Coordination Committee (OCC) the issue of settling its dues which is estimated to be to the tune of Rs 1,100 crore. OCC had so far issued bonds worth of about Rs 3,122 crore to ONGC, they said and hoped that the remaining dues would also be cleared at the earliest crore during 1998-99, is the only major oil exploration and production company in India supplying most of the crude and gas to the various marketing companies.

--PRESS TRUST OF INDIA