Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the nation’s largest oil company, on Tuesday reported a 31.4 per cent drop in the fourth quarter net profit as record refining margins were wiped away by a margin squeeze in petrochemicals and losses on fuel sales.

Standalone net profit stood at Rs 6,021.88 crore, or Rs 6.56 a share, in the fourth quarter compared with Rs 8,781.30 crore, or Rs 9.56 per share, in the same period a year back, the company said in a stock exchange filing.

Sequentially, the profit was higher than Rs 5,860.80 crore in the previous quarter.

The board of the company has recommended the issue of bonus shares in the ratio of 1:2 — one new bonus equity share of Rs 10 each for every two existing equity shares.

It also declared a final dividend of Rs 3.60 per equity share (pre bonus), which translates into a final dividend of Rs 2.40 per equity post-bonus for the financial year 2021-22. The final dividend is in addition to the interim dividend of Rs 9.00 per share (prebonus) paid earlier.

For the fiscal April 2021 to March 2022, IOC posted the highest-ever revenue by any Indian corporate at Rs 7.28 lakh crore or $96 billion (standalone).

Consolidated revenues, after including earnings of subsidiaries such as CPCL, came at Rs 7.36 lakh crore.

RIL had earlier this month reported Rs 7.92 lakh crore revenue for fiscal FY22. This was claimed to be the highest ever by an Indian company but it included GST, which the company collected on behalf of the government on sale of products and is obligated to transfer to the government.