The Dakshina Kannada and Udupi District Petroleum Dealers' Association (DKUPDA), will participate in a ‘no purchase no sale' agitation from the midnight of April 23, Satish Kamath, member, executive committee of DKUPDA, has said.
He was addressing a press meet in the city on Monday.
He said that the DKUPDA, under the banner of Akhila Karnataka Federation of Petroleum Traders (AKFPT), Bangalore, would support the strike call given by the Federation of All India Petroleum Dealers (FAIPD), New Delhi.
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He said that the traders wanted implementation of the Apoorva Chandra Committee report, which had long been delayed and affected the working of outlets due to frequent price hikes. However, the committee had considered the rates that prevailed in September 2010.
The committee should have met every six months but this had not happened.
The traders wanted an immediate stop to commissioning of new outlets and sales tax on petrol in Karnataka to be on par with neighbouring States, he said.
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Mr. Kamath said that while companies stated that they had no money to import petroleum products, they continued to advertise for new fuel outlests.
Breakeven mark
Of the 40,000 outlets in India, more than 70 per cent sold fuel below the breakeven mark of 150 kl per month. The revised salary structure, increased electricity bills, facilities to customers as laid down by oil companies, had made it impossible for an average selling dealer to survive in the present commission structure.
The government permitting oil companies to set up 12,000 more outlets would be “a disastrous failure” for existing and new dealerships, he said.