New Delhi: Petrol pump dealers’ associations will Tuesday resort to ‘no purchase of petrol and diesel’ from state-run companies. This is being done in protest against no increase in their commission by the oil marketing companies. However, the protest is unlikely to disrupt supplies as fuel bunks have enough stocks to last couple of days. Petrol Pump Dealers Association said its members in 22 states will join the protest. However, the dealers in Odisha will not be a part of the protest.
“Though there was an agreement between oil companies and dealer associations that the dealer margins will be revised every six months, it has not been done since 2017. The prices of fuel have almost doubled since 2017. Hence the working capital in business has doubled leading to additional loans and bank interests thereupon,” the petrol pump dealers’ association said in a statement.
Industry officials said that petrol pumps don’t need daily refills and their storage tanks store enough supplies to last couple of days.
“Evaporation losses have increased proportionately. Also, the overhead expenses like bank charges, electricity bills, salaries etc have increased manifold during the last five years. Our constant demand to revise dealer commission has been overlooked by the OMCs (Oil Marketing Companies). By doing so, OMCs are making their own network financially unviable,” the statement said.
Petrol pump dealers’ associations welcomed the relief given to citizens of India by the central government in reducing prices of petrol and diesel through excise duty cut.
“However, these sudden cuts have led to huge financial loss to the dealers. The central government in the past six months has announced two major cuts in excise duty (November 4, 2021 and May 21, 2022). The entire burden of Rs 13 per litre on petrol and Rs 16 per litre on diesel was passed on to the petrol pump dealers causing huge irrecoverable losses,” it said. It demanded increase in dealers’ commission immediately.
The 22 states where the dealers will be on protest are Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland, Manipur, Tripura, Sikkim and North Bengal.