The government has postponed to May 16, the date for bidding for 57 oil and gas blocks under the seventh round of New Exploration Licensing Policy.
The decision to postpone the bid date from April 25 to May 16 was done to allow room for clarification from finance ministry on tax breaks for oil and gas exploration and production, an official said.
Bids for NELP-VII were originally due on April 11, but was rescheduled for April 25 to allow firms more time to view data.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram had, in the Budget for 2008-09, announced end to income tax holidays for refineries commissioning after April 1, 2009. The Budget also mentioned tax breaks under section 80-IB(9) would be available for production of 'mineral oil', which was defined as not to include petroleum and natural gas.
This created a lot of confusion among investors and a fear of poor response took Petroleum Minister Murli Deora to Chidambaram earlier this