The slump in cash and bank balances comes on the back of the Centre’s policy of pushing public sector enterprises to acquire stakes in other PSUs, give out more dividends or go for share buybacks to meet its own fiscal deficit targets, analysts said.
The policy of trying to meet fiscal deficit targets by means of the finances of state-run companies has severely hurt the country’s largest oil explorer.
As per the company’s financial statement for the quarter ended September 2018, the company’s “cash and cash equivalents” were ₹7.71 crore and “other bank balances” stood at ₹159.71 crore, thereby taking the total cash reserves to ₹167.42 crore. In the end of the financial year 2017-2018, the ONGC reported a cash reserve of ₹2,385.98 crore.
