Petroleum ministry against closure of petrol pumps on Sundays

Petroleum ministry is not supporting the decision of a motor fuel dealers body to keep petrol pumps shut on Sundays beginning May 14.

In a series of tweets, the petroleum ministry said such closure of petrol pumps by a small section of dealers will lead to inconvenience to general public.

Major dealer’s federations have clarified that they don’t endorse any closure of petrol pumps on any day, it said.

The Consortium of Indian Petroleum Dealers (CIPD), which has presence mainly in Southern states, Maharashtra and Haryana, has given a call to work for eight hours a day and keep punps shut on Sundays beginning May 14. The move is being taken to create pressure on the oil marketing companies to hike dealers margin.

The largest body of motor fuel dealers, All India Petroleum Dealers Association, however, is not planning any suck closure but will meett on May 15 to decide on the further course of action. The association represents dealers from 21 states.

“Hon PM in #MannKiBaat appealed to People of India not to use fuel once a week & not to dealers to close their pumps on Sundays... Major dealers federations have clarified that they don't endorse any closure of petrol pumps on any day... @PetroleumMin (petroleum ministry) neither endorses nor approves of move by small section of dealers," the ministry said in tweets.

AIPDA and CIPD both are demanding higher margin on sale of motor fuels to pay their employees and foot increasing bills for public utilities.

There are roughly 5 lakh employees on petrol pumps across country and a fifth of them are contractual workers.

The dealer commission on petrol is Rs 2.56 per litre but dealers wants it be Rs 3.34 a litre for petrol. For diesel, the commission is Rs 1.65 per litre, the deales want it should be revised to Rs 2.19 per litre.

AIPDA's Ajay Bansal told DH they did not support the decision but would meet on May 15 to chart out their action plan as lower margins hurt them too.