The petroleum ministry has pointed out to the finance ministry that the government cannot go ahead with its plan of offloading 25 per cent of its stake in Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited through American depository receipts till it settles its dues with the Numaligarh and Kochi refineries.

The Numaligarh Refinery Limited and Kochi Refinery Limited, both subsidiaries of BPCL, are yet to receive Rs 46 crore and Rs 37 crore, respectively, from the oil pool account.

The petroleum ministry has argued that at the time of offloading of shares, the company has to account for this amount.

While dismantling the administered pricing mechanism in the oil sector in April 1, 2002, the government had paid Rs 9,000 crore (Rs 90 billion) to oil companies against a part of their dues in the oil pool account.

The payment was made through the issue of the 6.96 per cent Oil Companies' Government of India Special Bonds, 2009.

The seven-year bonds were issued on a provisional basis in lieu of a part of the estimated outstanding claims of oil companies on the Oil Coordination Committee (OCC) as on March 31, 2002.

Among the oil companies that received the special bonds, Indian Oil Corporation led with an amount of Rs 5,276 crore (Rs 52.76 billion), followed by Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited with Rs 1,481 crore (Rs 14.81 billion), BPCL with Rs 1,018 crore (Rs 10.18 billion) and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation with Rs 961 crore (Rs 9.61 billion).

The remaining amount was to be shared by Oil India Limited (Rs 107 crore), Bongaigaon Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (Rs 56 crore), NRL (Rs 46 crore), KRL (Rs 37 crore), Chennai Petroleum (Rs 12 crore) and Gas Authority of India Limited (Rs 6 crore).

The government had withheld these claims pending a special audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. These claims are yet to be certified by the CAG.

The ministry said under the rules governing ADR floats, if there was any misrepresentation of facts or inaccuracies in accounts, the board of director of the defaulting company could be subjected to American laws and tried in American courts.