Petrol pump dealers in 24 states to go for 'no purchase day' on May 31

Petrol pump dealers across 24 states have decided not to purchase diesel and petrol from oil companies on Tuesday, May 31, to mark their protest against dealers' commission which has not been revised since long. Around 70,000 outlets across 24 states will not buy fuel from oil marketing companies, it was announced on Monday, May 30.

"Dealers across 24 states will join 'No Purchase Petrol and Diesel' campaign tomorrow to highlight the financial distress of the petrol pump owners across the country," Delhi Petrol Dealers Association President Anurag Narayan said. At a media briefing by the Petrol Pump Dealers Association, he said that the campaign to not purchase fuel from oil companies on Tuesday will be taken over the non-increase of dealer margins over the past five years, as well as the issues with losses incurred from excise duty revisions by the Union government.

The association claimed that there was an agreement between Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) and the dealers association, that the dealers' margins will be revised every six months, but this has not been done since 2017. The prices of fuel have almost doubled since 2017, hence the working capital in business has also doubled leading to additional loans and bank interest and the evaporation losses have also increased proportionately, the association said.

"The dealer commission is essentially a reimbursement of our expenses like salaries, electricity bills and other expenses which have increased manifold during the last five years. Our demand is to revise dealer commission which has been overlooked by OMCs," said Narayan. The association demanded that the losses on account of excise reduction should be reimbursed by the OMCs and future price change should happen in line with Dynamic Pricing Mechanism. "A mechanism should be in place to isolate dealers from excise duty changes. Dealers should not make profit due to increase in excise duty, nor should they be burdened with loss due to reduction," it demanded.

The 24 states where dealers will join the 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, the North Bengal Dealers Association, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.