Targeting the Mukesh Ambani group, the Samajwadi Party has demanded windfall profit tax and withdrawal of concessions to private sector oil firms saying Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should take cognizance of its wish list as seriously as its support for the nuclear deal.

"If I take the prime minister's suggestion on nuclear deal seriously, I hope the prime minister will take cognizance of what I raised," Samajwadi Party General Secretary Amar Singh told PTI.

Also targeting the Union Petroleum Minister, Singh said Murli Deora "continues to favour only one well-known private operator". He said no individual in private sector "should be allowed this kind of loot."

While the country is reeling under the "spectre of unaffordable petrol, diesel and cooking gas prices," these oil companies are enjoying "double mazaa and indirect loot", he said.

Singh said the petrol pumps started by the private firms have been converted into real estate and pointed out that "they (private refiners) are earning Rs 15 per barrel and a profit of $6 billion."

Shrugging off Amar Singh's demands for levy of 'windfall tax' on private refiners and review of export-oriented status to the unit of Reliance Industries [Get Quote], Deora said the issues were out of his jurisdiction.

"The issues regarding (withdrawal of) export-oriented unit status to refineries and imposition of windfall tax do not fall within the purview of my ministry. Therefore, it is not appropriate for me to comment on these matters," Deora told PTI.

Singh, however, debunked reports that he was working at the behest of his close friend and Reliance ADA Group chairman Anil Ambani, who is at loggerheads with elder brother Mukesh.

"The finance minister is perceived to be close to Anil Ambani if Murli Deora is perceived to be close to Mukesh Ambani. Public perception is not good," the SP leader said.

Suggesting a windfall profit tax of up to 50 per cent on both upstream and downstream operators, Singh said the levy will immediately cover the under-recoveries of the oil marketing companies by Rs 100,000 crore (Rs 1,000 billion).

Reliance Industries is the biggest private sector firm which is engaged both in the upstream and downstream hydro-carbon business.

Asked how soon he would expect the government, to which the SP has promised support of its 39 MPs to act, Singh said, "I want to give the PM a breathing space. Hope he will take cognizance.

"The PM has so much interest in the nuclear deal. Windfall profit is an issue with the US Democrats also. I want him to do something about it." The SP leader said he wants the prime minister to ban export of all petroleum products.

The export-oriented unit status to the 27 million tonne Reliance Petroleum [Get Quote] refinery at Jamnagar would lose relevance if the government bans export of petroleum products.

In his letter to the Prime Minister, which Singh had described as a "public document", the SP leader said International Energy Agency has come out with a "scathing indictment" on the government's "rash decision" to allow conversion of a refinery into an export-oriented unit.

     "It (IEA) even went to suggest that the government has created a monster by this act," he said, adding that the Comptroller and Auditor General has also adversely commented on the decision of the Commerce Ministry to grant EoU status to the refinery.

Quoting CAG, Singh said, Indian Oil [Get Quote] alone would lose over Rs 1,500 crore (Rs 15 billion) annually as it is forced to buy products at a higher price from an EoU. Further, even the Gujarat Government

is losing Rs 3,000 crore every year by this "single act of motivated favouritism".

The SP leader said if the government had banned export of steel and rice, there was no justification to have this (oil) sector "singularly favoured".

Singh also demanded the Finance Ministry's intervention to arrest rupee depreciation. Dollar which was worth Rs 39 in the first week of May has since appreciated to over Rs 43.

Rupee depreciation helps exporters and makes imports expensive.

Deora's aide said the decision to convert Reliance's Jamnagar refinery into export oriented unit was taken by the Commerce Ministry after several rounds of inter-ministerial consultations that did an in-depth study of demand-supply projections.

Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum, he said, are adding new capacities and expanding existing ones to bridge the deficit in LPG and kerosene production. "In fact, these refineries will have exportable surplus in coming years."

India currently has a refining capacity of 149.5 million tons while the demand for fuel is only 121 million tons.

"One of the reasons for jump in international oil prices is shortfall in global refining capacities. We had taken a conscious decision to turn India into a refining hub and encouraged companies to set up export oriented units. But for the fuel exports and surplus refining capacity in India, the global oil prices would have been higher," he said.

Reliance Petroleum, a unit of Reliance Industries, is setting up a new 29 MT refinery in a Special Economic Zone that are meant only to cater to the export market.