First quarter losses for Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd have widened to INR 8,836 crore, mainly because of non-payment of subsidy by the Centre and depreciation of the rupee against the dollar. In the year-ago quarter, the company made a loss of INR 2,561 crore.

BPCL is the third public sector refiner after Indian Oil Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation to report huge losses following the Centre’s inability to foot the subsidy bill.

For the quarter, the company has reported an 18% hike in net sales at INR 54,522 crore (INR 46,117 crore).

As the prices of petroleum products such as petrol, diesel and kerosene were not hiked by the Centre, and stayed in line with the international prices, BPCL reported an under recovery of INR 7,964 crore for the first quarter, while in the year-ago quarter it was INR 3,356 crore.

The company also suffered foreign exchange losses to the tune of INR 1,611 crore for the quarter. In the year-ago quarter, it was INR 1,060 crore.

Source - Business Line

(www.steelguru.com)