The government has slapped an additional penalty of USD 579 million on Reliance Industries for producing less than targeted natural gas from its KG-D6 block, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said today.

With this, the total penalty on RIL for missing the target in four fiscal years beginning April 1, 2010 now stands at a cumulative USD 2.376 billion, the Minister informed the Lok Sabha today.

The penalty is in the form of disallowing costs incurred. The Production Sharing Contract (PSC) allows RIL and its partners BP Plc and Niko Resources to deduct all capital and operating expenses from the sale of gas before sharing profit with the government. Disallowing costs will result in government's profit share rising by USD 195 million from 2010-11 to 2013-14, he said.