New Delhi After the Union Budget wiped out $1 billion from Cairn India’s market cap by raising the cess on oil production from R2,500 per tonne to R4,500, the government continues to sit on the company’s applications for both increasing production from its existing MBA (Mangala, Bhagyam and Aishwarya) fields in Rajasthan as well as to carry on more exploration in its Rajasthan block.

If the applications are cleared, apart from the gains Cairn and its partner ONGC will make, the government stands to gain R6.8 crore a day (of this, R2.1 crore is for the Rajasthan government) and the country can save R12.5 crore of forex every day in the immediate future;