ONGC takes profit hit from royalty payments

New Delhi: India's Oil and Natural Gas Corp will take a Rs1,600 crore ($239 million) hit to its quarterly earnings to account for previous royalty payments to Indian states, the oil exploration company's finance head A. K. Srinivasan said.

ONGC has already made a Rs2,500 crore payment to two states as royalty on crude oil



produced from April 2014, but had not reflected this because it was under litigation, Srinivasan said on Tuesday.

India's Supreme Court has asked the federal government to compensate the western Gujarat and Assam for Rs15,000 crore in lost revenues due to lower royalties paid by state-run explorers ONGC and Oil India Ltd.