Haldia Petrochemicals Limited (HPL), promoted by Purnendu Chatterjee-led TCG, has received the government approval to retail motor spirit, which is produced as a by-product at its plant in West Bengal.
"HPL has got the approval for retail motor spirit (petrol) on their own, which so far they were selling to oil marketing companies", Ashutosh Jindal, Joint Secretary with the Ministry of Petroluem and Natural Gas told PTI.
Jindal said the company had sought permission from the ministry for retailing petrol. "In the first phase, they will sell in four districts and another six districts in the second phase. All of them are in West Bengal."
HPL was manufacturing motor spirit as a by-product at its petrochemical plant and it was being sold to the oil marketing companies.
Now, HPL is classified as an oil company.
The company had earlier urged the government that it should be allowed to retain the sales tax which was imposed on the sales of the fuel to the oil marketing firms for getting financial advantage.
The company claims that it was losing Rs 300 crore to Rs 350 crore per year because the firm was not allowed to retain sales tax levied on the fuel.
The oil ministry sources said that HPL had proposed to set up 100 petrol pumps in two phases.
The first four districts are East Midnapore, West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia.
The second-phase districts are Howrah, Hooghly, Nadia, Burdwan, South and North 24 Parganas.
Sources in HPL said that the company was producing 25,000 kilolitres per month of Euro-IV grade of motor spirit.
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