The Federation of All India Petroleum Traders has written to Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan informing him that there will be no sale or purchase by petrol pumps on June 16. This move is in protest of the decision by oil marketing companies to revise fuel prices on a daily basis from June 16 onwards.
“Our National President Ashok Badhwar wrote a letter to the Minister for Petroleum & Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan informing him about the no purchase no sale on June 16, 2017 by the petrol pumps of the country in protest against the decision of oil marketing companies to change the retail price of petroleum products on daily basis,” FAIPT said in a statement on Saturday.
“He said that the oil industry had launched a pilot project on this behalf,” the statement added. “Dealers of five cities where it was launched have already burnt their fingers. They are crying at the inventory loss that they have already suffered due the fluctuations in the daily changing prices on the inventory held by them.”
The statement added that the government should have made an objective study on the operations and profitability of retail outlets and then made an informed decision. “Sadly, nothing of that kind has been done and now this misadventure is going to be implemented in the entire country,” it said. “Petrol dealers see a dark road ahead of them if such a misinformed decision is put in practice.”
The letter to Mr. Pradhan also pointed out that there were dealerships where tank lorries took two to three days to reach the retail outlet. In their cases, there is a strong possibility that by the time the lorries reach the outlets, the fuel price might have already reduced leaving the dealer in a tough situation, the letter said.
According FAIPT, the introduction of daily revisions would also have an adverse impact on the dealers’ health since the price changes are usually announced past midnight, and they have to be present at the pump to ensure that the new prices are implemented.
“Such effort once in a fortnight is accepted by the dealer as a professional hazard but doing it daily would be beyond the physical competence of all dealers,” FAIPT said.
