Petroleum dealers across Gujarat to join their national peers on a 'one-shift-sale' strike beginning from October 15 to press for their demands on payment of commission as per the cost-based structure as recommended by Apoorva Chandra Committee, appointed by the ministry of petroleum and natural gas (MoPNG).
The petroleum dealers in state, led by Federation of Gujarat Petroleum Dealers' Association will operate only one shift in order to cut costs. "There has been no revision in commission for past two years. In these years, the cost of operations and investments have gone up substantially. Therefore, we have decided to curtail our operations by half and operate our pumps for eight hours only," said Mayur Mehta, an office bearer of the Federation and owner of a petroleum pump in Ahmedabad.
Presently, petrol pump owners get commission of Rs 1.5 per litre on petrol and Re 0.90 per litre on diesel sale. However, the handling cost for the petrol pump owners have gone up over a period of time, thereby shrinking their earnings.
"It is becoming difficult to operate in high cost and low commission. To save on our costs, we have decided to work for eight hours during 10 am to 6 pm in Gujarat from October 15 onwards," said Kiran Patel, president of Federation of Gujarat Petroleum Dealers Association. Patel is also a member of Confederation of Indian Petroleum Dealers (CIPD) - a central association of petroleum dealers.
The dealers are demanding the implementation of Apoorva Chandra Committee recommendations, which suggests a state-wise cost-based structure for calculation of commission for petroleum dealers across the country. The committee has also recommended to revise the commission every six months, based on the costs.
"The recommendations have been lying with the petroleum ministry for a long time and they are delaying the implementation for unknown reason. Our intention is not to trouble the consumers, but we have to restrict our hours of operations to limit our costs," said Patel.
According to Patel, in Gujarat, daily petrol sale is about 3.7 million litres per day, and diesel sale is about 11 million litres per day. The petroleum dealers expect that with the implementation of Apoorva Committee recommendations, the commission may go up to around Rs 1.85 per litre for petrol and Rs 1.05 per litre for diesel.
According to CIPD, the petroleum ministry, instead of fixing commission ad-valorem, had asked oil PSUs to revise the commission on diesel on the basis of an old formula.
The petroleum dealers have raised objection to this and demanded immediate implementation of Aporrva Chandra Committee recommendations.
