The government has taken advantage of lower crude prices and has created reserves and stored 38-40 MMT of crude oil which equals 20 percent of the annual oil demand of the country.

Share Market Live

NSE

The country has strategic reserves of 5.33 MMT which caters to 9-10 days of the Indian oil demand and this has already been filled by the government. 8.5-9 MMT of crude oil is stored as floating reserves with GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries and the remaining is filled by refineries at different sites.

The minister also said that the government is exploring some possibilities to invest in the USA to store crude oil.

Pradhan also mentioned that the government has received requests from oil producers to reduce the taxes and royalties on oil and gas production and the ministry agrees that higher taxes will be detrimental to the health of these companies considering the low levels of demand and production.

The Centre is concerned about higher taxation and has asked the Finance Ministry has been asked to look into the problem. The Minister told CNBC-TV18 that there should be a restructuring of taxes on upstream companies in the current regime.

First Published:May 25, 2020 7:52 PM IST