Numaligarh Refinery: Mounting losses

Guwahati, May 15: The All Assam Students Union today opposed the Numaligarh Oil Refinery (NRL) decision to hike petrol and diesel prices and asked the Centre to provide compensation to it.

“It is illogical that while the other three public sector oil marketing companies — IOCL, BPCL and HPCL — can get compensation from the government, NRL cannot. If the NRL is not a marketing company because of which it is not getting compensation, it is the duty of the Centre to accord it the status of one,” AASU president Shankar Prasad Rai said at a news conference today.

“When the Centre can provide crores of rupees in the form of compensation to the others, there is no reason why help cannot be provided to NRL, too,” he added.

The dealers are asking NRL not to hike prices, as it would mean losing customers.

Asserting that the NRL is an Assam Accord Refinery, Rai said the people of the state would not like the refinery to be neglected both by the Centre and the state.

“When the refinery was created, there was a Congress rule and today when it is facing a crisis, the Congress is still there. Both the governments at the state and the Centre are of the same party and there is no reason why they should not come to the aid of the refinery,” he said.

The company said because of the lack of a compensation mechanism, the retail marketing losses of NRL have been mounting over the years.

If retail prices are not increased correspondingly, the losses for NRL may go up to Rs 400 to Rs 500 crore.

Holding the Assam government, which has a 10 per cent stake in the refinery equally responsible, Rai said Gogoi should talk to the Centre to bail out the refinery.

AASU adviser Samujjal Bhattacharyya said they were demanding that the state government should hike its stake upto 26 per cent.

“The Hiteswar Saikia government, which was in power at that time, compromised and settled for only 10 per cent stake,” Bhattacharyya said.

He said the voice of the state government would have been much stronger had its stake been higher.

“We feel proud when we see the retail outlets of NRL as it belongs to our state and would never like to see its downfall,” he added.

He said the union would oppose the proposed hike in petrol and diesel prices, which would hit the consumers hard.

“We will launch an agitation soon if the governments do not do anything,” he said.

Bhattacharyya said both OIL and ONGC have not paid Rs 525 crore on account of sales tax and transportation tax to NRL. The share of OIL is Rs 348 crore while that of ONGC is Rs 177 crore.