NEW DELHI: State oil companies will have to bear the cost of the mandatory discount on cashless fuel sales at petrol pumps, which may be as high as Rs 5,000 crore a year, according to initial estimates, but officials said there is no clarity on whether the government would compensate them for the loss.Last week, the government directed state oil companies to offer 0.75% discount on the purchase of petrol and diesel to those paying digitally, a plan that took off on Tuesday. This would roughly translate into 50 paise discount on each litre of petrol and 40 paise on diesel. For the state firms – Indian Oil Corp, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum – that together sell about 90,000 kilo litres of petrol and 225,000 kilo litres of diesel daily on average, this would mean a significant dent in income.“It’s yet to be worked out. Presently, there has been no discussion on this with the government. Right now we are busy rolling this out,” Mukesh Surana, chairman, Hindustan Petroleum, said on whether the government or the companies have proposed any plan on sharing the cost of discount.An oil ministry spokesman and an executive at Indian Oil Corp said the companies would bear the cost for now and there is no discussion so far on whether the government will partly or fully compensate companies.At present, a customer buying fuel at a filling station pays the full price digitally. The credit/debit card or the digital wallet company credits to the customer’s account the amount of discount within three days and transfers the balance to petrol pump dealer, Nitin Goyal, treasurer at All India Petroleum Dealers Association (AIPDA). The dealers will then have to wait for compensation from the oil companies, Goyal said, adding the timeframe for the payment is not yet clear.Petrol and diesel sales have surged 14% and 10.5% in November after the government recalled old Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes but allowed petrol pumps, along with hospitals, railways and some other essential service providers to accept the old currency.