State-run oil refining and marketing firm Indian Oil Corp (IOC) may show a loss in the second quarter of fiscal 2007-08,a if the government does not come to its rescue and issue fresh oil bonds or hike the consumer prices of petrol and diesel.
?Without bonds we may not be able to show profits this quarter,? IOC?s director finance S. V. Narasimhan told reporters on Monday.
Public sector oil marketing firms-IndianOil (IOC), Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum (HPCL)?are together bearing Rs 200-crore daily loss on account of non-revision of fuel prices. The per-day loss of IOC alone stands at Rs 80 crore.
Government officials said though the finance ministry could come to the rescue of public sector OMCs by issuing bonds but it was clearly not in favour of oil bonds as this mechanism is unsustainable and is simply passing on the losses to the next generation. ?The government has to ultimately give freedom to oil firms to fix their prices without interfering into it,? a senior official said.
IOC?s director finance said the company was also planning to sell around Rs 15,000-20,000 crore of oil bonds already issued to it, sometime in October this year. ?We are in touch with our bankers on this and the quantum of bonds to be liquidated will entirely depend on the appetite of the market,? he said.
Petrol prices were reduced by Rs 2 per litre and diesel by Re 1 per litre in February, but the Indian basket of crude oil has risen over 30% since then.
Oil firms are losing Rs 5.88 per litre on petrol, Rs 4.80 per litre on diesel, Rs 189.14 per LPG cylinder and Rs 14.63 on sale of every litre of kerosene.
During the April-June quarter of 2007-08, Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum together lost Rs 1,533 crore on selling petrol, Rs 4,633 crore on diesel, Rs 4,028 crore on kerosene and Rs 2,698 crore on domestic LPG.