70,000 Petrol Dealers Stopped Working On May 31; Refused To Buy Petrol/Diesel For This Reason

Petrol pump dealers across 24 states will not be purchasing diesel and petrol from oil companies as a sign of protest against dealers’ commission which has not been revised since a long time.

Basis Of Protest

Around 70,000 outlets participated in this protest.

The campaign, called ‘No Purchase Petrol and Diesel’ is meant to bring awareness to the financial distress of the petrol pump owners across the country.

They are protesting against the non-increase of dealer margins over the past five years along with losses incurred from excise duty revisions by the Union government.

The Situation

The Petrol Pump Dealers Association claims that it had an agreement between Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) and the dealers association which would have dealers’ margins revised every six months.

However this has not been done since 2017.

Fuel prices have almost doubled since then and as a result the working capital in business has also doubled.

This resulted in additional loans and bank interest and the evaporation losses have also increased proportionately, the association said.

Delhi Petrol Dealers Association President Anurag Narayan explained that a dealer commission is essentially a reimbursement of expenses like salaries, electricity bills and others which have increased manifold during the last five years.

Demands

They are demanding a revision of the dealer commission which has been overlooked by OMCs.

Another demand is to have losses on account of excise reduction reimbursed by the OMCs.

Future price change should happen in line with Dynamic Pricing Mechanism.

A mechanism has to be established which would isolate dealers from excise duty changes.

They shouldn’t make profit due to increase in excise duty, nor should they be burdened with loss due to reduction.

Participating States

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
• North Bengal Dealers Association
• Madhya Pradesh 
• Uttar Pradesh