The combined debt of Indian Oil [Get Quote], Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum has risen to Rs 115,000 crore (Rs 1,150 billion) as they borrowed to make up for revenue losses on fuel sales during the first half of the current fiscal.

The three firms reported combined losses of Rs 14,431 crore (Rs 144.31 billion) during April-September this fiscal, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dinsha Patel said in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha.

"Their combined borrowings at the end of November 2008 stood at Rs 115,000 crore with an interest burden of Rs 8,100 crore (Rs 81 billion)," he said.

The fiscal position has improved in the third quarter with the easing of international oil prices. The average price of the Indian basket of crude oil was $50.91 per barrel during November, and that has further come down to $42.47 a barrel this month.

"At the current international oil prices, the Oil Marketing Companies (IOC, BPCL [Get Quote] and HPCL [Get Quote]) are incurring under-recoveries (or revenue losses) on sale of PDS kerosene and domestic LPG," Patel said.

They are making a profit of Rs 11.48 on every litre of petrol they sell and Rs 2.92 per litre on diesel, but continue to lose Rs 17.26 per litre of PDS kerosene and Rs 148.38 per domestic LPG cylinder.

For the full fiscal, revenue losses on fuel sales have been estimated at Rs 110,381 crore (Rs 1,103.81 billion), he said. The government had earlier this month cut petrol price by Rs 5 a litre and diesel by Rs 2 per litre as crude oil prices dipped from an all-time high of $147 a barrel in July to under $45 a barrel.