After months of wait, the Government is learnt to have disbursed a part of the oil subsidy for the third quarter of the current fiscal. The amount, according to sources privy to the development, though is not clear as they only confirmed that it hardly covers a third of the total revenue loss suffered by the oil marketing companies on sale of lPG and kerosene at below market price.
A total of Rs16,000 crore in revenue was lost by fuel retailers on selling PDS kerosene and domestic lPG at Government-controlled rates in October-December. Of this, the Finance Ministry issued letter providing for less than one-third of this as cash subsidy, official sources said. The amount sanctioned by the Finance Ministry, sources said, is learnt to be less than half of the said amount. Upstream oil producers like ONGC are likely to shoulder the main burden of the oil subsidy, though there is still not any clarity as to what exactly is the formula worked out by the Government while deciding the payment.