Thaindian News

New Delhi, May 30 (IANS) India’s largest state refiner, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) recorded a drop of 30 percent in net profit for the fourth quarter of 2010-11, the company reported Monday.

A company press release said that for the quarter ending March 2011, Indian Oil’s net profit was Rs.3,905 crore, which is a decrease of 30 percent from Rs.5,571 crore for the like period of last year.

Similarly, there was also a drop of 27 percent in the annual net profit for the year 2010-11 at Rs.7,445 crore, compared to Rs.10,220 crore in 2009-10.

According to IOC chairman R.S. Butola, the company has been reporting loss of Rs.261 crore daily due to selling petroleum products at government-administered subsidised rates.

Butola said the company had under-recoveries amounting to Rs.4,845 crore due to subsidised fuel sales in 2010-11.

Out of it, Rs.3,803 crore was due to losses in revenue sales on diesel, cooking gas and kerosene, which is Rs.650 crore more than in 2009-10.

“Also, there was an under-recovery of about Rs.1,000 crore on petrol as we did not raise prices in line with international parity despite government freeing petrol price from control in June last year,” he said.

Earlier this month, oil marketing companies had increased the price of petrol by about eight percent. Despite the hike, IOC is currently losing Rs 4.58 per litre on petrol.

However, this will come down to Rs 1.15 per litre from June 1, when the under-recoveries will be calculated on basis of the average international price of the second half of May, when crude prices decreased.

“After adding VAT, the desired increase in price of petrol in Delhi is Rs 1.35 per litre,” said Butola.