The government may issue Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited Rs 10,300 crore (Rs 103 billion) worth of oil bonds this week to compensate these companies for the losses they have incurred on fuel sales in last fiscal.
The bonds, which will come over and above Rs 61,800 crore (Rs 618 billion) already issued to the three companies, would help them bridge the revenue loss they incurred on sale of petrol, diesel, liquid petroleum gas and kerosene in 2008-09, a petroleum ministry official said.
The three companies had lost Rs 1,03,292 crore (Rs 1,032.92 billion) on sale of the four fuels, of which Rs 32,000 crore (Rs 320 billion) has been chipped in by upstearm companies like Oil and Natural Gas Corporation.
"With the bond issue we hope the oil retailing companies will either break-even or make profits," he said.
