Petrol pumps will not remain shut on Sundays for now

Decision taken after govt's call for a meeting in this regard on May 17 in Mumbai

A group of petrol pump owners on Saturday said it has deferred the plan to shut shop on Sundays.
 
On April 10, the Consortium of Indian Petroleum Dealers (CIPD), which claims to have 25,000 members, asked its members to shut shop on Sundays starting May 14, in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision to reduce fuel consumption. “We have been called by the government for a meeting in this regard on May 17 in Mumbai. Hence, we have asked our retail outlets to stay open on Sunday,” A D Sathyanarayan, president, CIPD, said.  The association cited a Mann ki Baat radio address, in which Modi said fuel consumption is a major area where people can contribute to “new India”, as a trigger for its decision. “If every citizen resolves to obey traffic rules, if every citizen resolves that he will discharge his duties honestly, if every citizen resolves he will not use petrol or diesel one day in a week — these are not very big things, but these will contribute to the realisation of the dream of this country,” the PM had said.
 
According to  this year’s March figures, India has 56,190 fuel retail outlets, of which public sector majors, such as Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, have a combined network of 52,604 outlets. The private  players in the sector are Shell, Reliance and Essar Oil. On a monthly basis, each of these outlets consume 170 kl of fuel.
 
The petroleum ministry had gone out in public against the association in a tweet, stating  “@PetroleumMin neither endorses nor approves of move by small section of dealers to keep their petrol pumps closed on Sundays. Such closure of petrol pumps by a small section of dealers will lead to inconvenience to general public.”