Indian Oil Corp, the nation’s largest fuel retailer, reported 33 per cent dip in net profit for the March quarter mainly on account of a lump sum subsidy it had received in the comparable quarter of the previous fiscal.
Net profit in the fourth quarter of 2014-15 was Rs 6,285.35 crore, or Rs 25.89 a share -- 33 per cent lower than Rs 9,389.85 crore, or Rs 38.67 a share in the <g data-gr-id="29">year ago</g> period, IOC said. IOC Chairman B Ashok told reporters here, “In the fourth quarter of 2013-14, we had received Rs 7,735 crore fuel subsidy for previous quarters, pushing up the profits. “Without this back-quarter compensation, Q4 2013-14 net profit would have been Rs 1,655 crore.” IOC and other state-owned fuel retailers sell domestic LPG and kerosene at <g data-gr-id="30">government controlled</g> rates and losses thus incurred are made good through cash subsidy and dole from oil producers like ONGC.
The firm earned $8.77 on turning every barrel of crude oil into fuel in the January-March quarter, as opposed to a gross refining margin (GRM) of $2.17 per barrel in the same period of 2013-14. IOC had lost Rs 3,221 crore in revenue in the fourth quarter of 2014-15 on cooking fuel sales, all of which were compensated. For the full fiscal ended March 31, 2015, it posted a net profit of Rs 5,273 crore, lower than Rs 7,019 crore in the previous year. “We had an inventory loss of Rs 15,600 crore in 2014-15 as against an inventory gain of Rs 3,990 crore in the previous year,” Ashok said.
IOC refineries processed 53.6 million tons of crude oil in 2014-15 as compared to 53.1 million tons in the previous fiscal, he said. Fuel sales rose to 71.8 million tons, from 70 million tons in 2013-14, with petrol (8.3 million tons) and diesel (34.5 million tons) leading the charge.