Upstream companies and explorers Oil and Natural Gas Corp , Oil India Ltd and GAIL have to sell crude oil and products at a discount to retailers, which sell fuel at government-capped prices.

The source, who did not wish to be identified, said ONGC's subsidy burden was about 248.92 billion rupees while OIL's share stood at about 32.93 billion rupees and that of GAIL at 21.11 billion rupees.

He said the subsidy payout by upstream firms would be about 38.7 percent of the revenue losses suffered by oil retailers on fuel sales compared with the 33.33 percent earlier.