The nation’s largest fuel retailer, Indian Oil Corp (IOC), reported a 71% dip in its net profit in the first quarter on Wednesday. The reason behind the drop was the poor good refinery margins, which could not make up for the revenue loss on fuel sales.

The chairman of IOC, Sarthak Behuria reported, that net profit in April-June was up to Rs 415.13 crore from Rs 1,468.41 crore in the year ago period.

For the processing every barrel of crude oil, the company earned $16.81, up from $10.70 per barrel last year. However, it was not good enough to make up for the Rs 413 crore losses it incurred per day on sale of petrol, diesel, domestic LPG and kerosene.

In the Q1 of 2007-08, the sales however rose to Rs 74,496.12 crore from Rs 52,861.96 crore. The company also reported an additional income of Rs 14,276 crore, which included Rs 13,527 crore oil bonds government issued to the company to partly compensate for the losses on fuel sales.