The lump sum payment of subsidy amount for the third and fourth quarters of FY13 fuelled a 14.5 per cent growth in Indian Oil Corporation's (IOC) net profit for January-March period as it stood at Rs 14,512.81 crore from Rs 12,670.43 crore of the corresponding period.
IOC Chairman R S Butola told media persons said that the company received the fuel subsidy from the Government for more than one quarter during the period which reflected in the financials.
IOC sells diesel, cooking gas (lPG) and kerosene at Government-controlled rates which are way below the market price and the resultant losses incurred by oil marketing companies are reimbursed to them by way of cash subsidy from the Government.
The Government had not paid any cash subsidy in the third quarter and released a lump sum amount in the quarter under review. Out of the total subsidy amount of Rs 53,278.07 crore given to the three OMCs for FY13, IOC received Rs 23,709.54 crore in fourth quarter alone. Of the Rs 85,793 crore in revenue it lost on selling diesel and cooking fuel below cost during the full fiscal, it got Rs 53,278.07 crore from the Government and another Rs 31,966.84 crore from upstream firms like ONGC, Butola said.
The Chairman informed that IOC earned $2.39 on turning every barrel of crude oil into fuel in Q4 compared to $2.26 per barrel gross refining margin in the same period the previous year.
The company board recommended a dividend of Rs 6.20 per equity share. For the full FY'13 fiscal, the company reported a net profit of Rs 5,005.17 crore, up 26.5 per cent from Rs 3,954.62 crore in the previous 2011-12 financial year.
IOC's turnover rose 12 per cent to Rs 447,096.41 crore from Rs 398,476.63 crore. IOC plans to invest Rs 11,277 crore in current fiscal as compared to Rs 9,378 crore in 2012-13, he said, adding the company has a planned capex of Rs 56,200 crore in the XIIth Five Year Plan (2012-17) (Rs 48,655 crore in XIth Plan).