Indian Oil forcing dealers to sell premium fuels

  • 19/05/2008

  • Hindu (New Delhi)

The Federation of All India Petroleum Dealers has strongly condemned the move by the Indian Oil Corporation to stop supply of normal petrol and diesel products and instead "force' the dealers to only sell premium branded fuels from their retail outlets. Reports suggested that Indian Oil has cut supply of normal petrol and diesel to nearly 100 retail outlets in Delhi and around 500 outlets in Haryana. The major oil supplying company has already frozen issuing of LPG connections to consumers and also putting in place a per month quota per family for consumption of LPG cylinder. The Federation of All India Petroleum Dealers general secretary, Ajay Bansal, while condemning this move of IOC said it was unfortunate that owners of retail outlets in the Capital were being forced to sell on premium branded products. This is going to immensely harm the interests of the retail outlets as well as consumers and would only contribute towards increasing the inflation in the country, he added. In Delhi, while normal petrol is being sold at Rs.45.52 per litre, the premium petrol is sold at Rs.48.52 per litre. In case of diesel, then normal diesel is sold at Rs.31.76 per litre and premium diesel is sold at Rs.33.01 per litre. Mr. Bansal said all those dealers whose consumption was 200 KL per month have been stopped supply of normal petrol and diesel. The situation is no better in adjoining State of Haryana where this number has reached 500 outlets. "All dealers selling 100 KL of capacity every month in Haryana have also been stopped supply of normal petrol and diesel and only branded fuels were being supplied to them. This will adversely impact their sales as people are reluctant to buy premium fuels,' he added. Mr. Bansal said an emergency meeting of the federation had been convened on May 24 to discuss the situation and also take a decision on going on an indefinite strike in support of their demands. "However, this new development has added urgency to the situation and things are likely to go out of control,' he warned.