It is not clear what Law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had in mind when he said the government was looking at a 'long-term' solution to rising oil prices. However, one solution hinted at by ratings agency Moody's was that oil PSUs, like ONGC, may end up, as they did till a few years ago, bearing a large part of the unofficial oil subsidy by way of selling oil to refiners like IOC/HPCL/BPCL at a discount-between FY12 and FY15, ONGC's discounts averaged Rs 47,000 crore a year. It is speculated that ONGC may instead be asked to pay a 'windfall tax' once prices of oil rose beyond $70 a barrel. The money got from this would be used to keep consumer prices low; in effect, this is something quite similar to the earlier practice of discounts. It is not clear if the government will actually move in this direction, but if it is true, it will be quite unfortunate. ONGC, and other oil PSUs, have traditionally been milch cows for the government, but while the NDA did away with the practice of discounts thanks to the crash in crude prices, it introduced new ways to milk ONGC.