Patna: Union minister for petroleum and natural gas Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday said the UPA regime had left the oil sector in the lurch by issuing oil bonds that placed a huge burden on the government.

Pradhan said the "pro-active role played by Prime Minister Narendra Modi vis-à-vis the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) had helped keep crude prices under check.

He was speaking at a programme organised by the state BJP against Emergency imposed by the then Congress government in 1975.

"Having sensed that it was not going to return to power, the earlier government issued oil bonds to the tune of Rs 1.44 lakh crore. This load was handed over to our government. We inherited this huge load and paid additional Rs 70,000 crore as interest," said the minister.

Faced with rising crude prices around 2005, the UPA government had issued oil bonds to compensate the petroleum companies since the product prices were not increased in line with input costs.

The oil companies sold these bonds to other investors and raised liquidity for their operations. The NDA government now says they are burdened with servicing the bonds.