Mumbai, Aug. 22 -- The ministry of petroleum and natural gas has raised over a dozen objections to the proposed demerger of Vedanta Ltd into five listed companies, saying it could hamper the recovery of dues to the government.

The objections include concerns over the company raising foreign loans by offering national oil assets as collateral, said a person directly aware of the government's case.

The ministry also objected to Vedanta withholding $578 million in payments to the government as part of the production-sharing agreement for India's largest onshore crude oil block in Rajasthan, which is operated by Vedanta subsidiary Cairn Oil & Gas.

Vedanta had announced its plan to demerge into six separately listed entities back in Septemb...