By IANS,
New Delhi: India’s biggest oil explorer, Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) Monday reported a decrease of 26 percent in net profit for the fourth quarter of 2010-11, mainly due to rise in discounts to state oil refiners.
A company press release said ONGC’s net profit for the quarter ending March 31, 2011 was Rs.2,791 crore, compared to Rs.3,776 crore for the same period previous year – a drop of 26 percent.
In 2010-11, ONGC had to pay Rs.24,892 crore to oil refiners as discounts to state refiners, who sell fuel at subsidised rates. This was the highest ever amount, with half of it paid in the fourth quarter.
“We paid Rs.12,136 crore in fuel subsidy compensation in Q4 compared to Rs.4,999 crore in the same period in the previous fiscal,” said ONGC chairman A.K. Hazarika.
The annual net profit for 2010-11 however increased by 13 percent to Rs.18,924 crore.
If the fuel subsidy had been equal to the previous fiscal, then the net profit for the fourth quarter would have been higher by Rs.2,074 crore and Rs.14,247 for the entire year, said Hazarika.