New Delhi, Dec 18 (PTI) Officers of Engineers India, arelatively smaller company among the state-owned firms underthe oil ministry, have taken the most number of trips abroadin the last three years.
As many as 2,549 trips by engineering consultancy firm'sofficers between April 2014 and March 2017 were double thetrips officers of ONGC Videsh Ltd, a firm which has 39projects in 18 countries and whose primary job is to scout forinvestment opportunities abroad, Oil Minister DharmendraPradhan said today.
In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha,Pradhan said officers of EIL undertook 920 trips overseas in2014-15, 962 in 2015-16 and 667 in 2016-17. This compared with381 trips by OVL officers in 2014-15, 430 in following yearand 486 in 2016-17.
In fact, trips assigned to OVL were less than even itsparent firm, Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), whose officersmade 630 trips overseas in 2014-15, 530 in 2015-16 and 596 in2016-17.
"The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has asked thepublic sector companies under its administrative jurisdictionto furnish details of foreign trips undertaken by all officersof public sector undertakings (PSUs) during the last threeyears," he said.
Indian Oil Corp (IOC) officers took 1,391 trips abroadwhile Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) executives wereoverseas on 542 occasions in the three years under review.
Officers of Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) were theleast travelled overseas, with just 259 trips in the threeyears.
While ONGC is the country's highest profit-makingcompany, IOC is the biggest company by revenue. EIL, whosemain business is to provide consultancy services, is Navaratnafirm.
In reply to a separate question, Pradhan said IOC - thenation's biggest fuel retailer, was the biggest advertisementspender in last three years. It spend Rs 399.23 crore in threeyears to March 31, 2017. In the current fiscal, it has spentRs 81.87 crore.
BPCL and HPCL - the other main fuel retailers in thecountry - spent Rs 146.14 crore and Rs 158.16 crore,respectively.
But their ad expenditure paled in front of Rs 210.34spending by ONGC, which primarily is in the business ofproducing oil and gas and unlike fuel retailers is notrequired to spend on advertisements to capture customers.
During the current fiscal, ONGC has so far spent Rs 29.49crore. This is lower than Rs 36.48 crore expenditure by BPCLand Rs 43.38 crore by HPCL.
Gas utility GAIL India Ltd spent Rs 141.84 crore onadvertisements between 2014-15 and 2016-17 and another Rs38.47 crore in the current fiscal. PTI ANZMKJ.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.