21-05-08 Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) will pay subsidies totalling Rs 22,001 crore ($ 5.16 bn) to state-run fuel retailers for the financial year ended 31 March 2008, petroleum ministry sources said.
The subsidy bill for ONGC, Oil India Ltd, and GAIL together has risen to Rs 25708 crore, nearly 25.4 % higher than in the previous year.

For the January-March quarter, ONGC's subsidy bill has risen nearly 81.5 % year-on-year to Rs 8472 crore, while GAIL (India) will pay Rs 474 crore to retailers for the quarter and Oil India over Rs 888 crore.
State-run oil explorers provide the subsidy to PSU oil marketing companies like Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation by selling crude to them at a heavy discount.

Oil India will pay 15.64 % more subsidy for the last fiscal at Rs 2,306 crore, while GAIL's subsidy share has declined 5.85 % to Rs 1,401 crore, the official said.
Exploration firms such as ONGC subsidise a third of the retail losseson subsidised sale of fuels like petrol and diesel while government partly compensates oil marketing companies through issue of oil bonds.