State-run fuel retailers post bumper FY24 profits
State-owned fuel retailers Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) reported bumper profits totalling about ₹81,000 crore in FY24, which far exceeded their annual earning in pre-oil crisis years.
The combined stand-alone net profit of IOC, BPCL, and HPCL in April 2023 to March 2024 (FY24) was better than their annual earning of ₹39,356 crore in pre-oil crisis years, regulatory filings by them showed.
All the three companies posted the highest ever standalone and consolidated net profit in FY24. The retailers have resisted calls to revert to daily price revision on grounds that prices continue to be extremely volatile and that they needed to recoup losses incurred in the year when they kept rates lower than cost.
IOC in 2023-24 posted a stand-alone net profit of ₹39,618.84 crore compared with ₹8,241.82 crore annual net profit in 2022-23, company filings show. While the company could argue that FY23 was impacted by the oil crisis, the FY24 earnings are higher than even the pre-crisis years— ₹24,184 crore net profit in 2021-22 and ₹21,836 crore in 2020-21.
BPCL posted a net profit of ₹26,673.50 crore in FY24, higher than ₹1,870.10 crore earning in 2022-23 and ₹8,788.73 crore in FY22. HPCL’S 2023-24 profit of ₹14,693.83 crore is compared with a ₹8,974.03 crore loss in FY23 and a profit of ₹6,382.63 crore in 2021-22, according to the filings.