Nearly 54,000 petroleum dealers across India under the banner of United Petroleum Front (UPF) comprising three-bodies - FAIPT, AIPDA and CIPD - will close down petrol bunk operations across the country for one-day on October 13.
This will be followed by an indefinite closure of purchase and sales of all petroleum products from October 27 till the trade anomalies are resolved, a joint communique from presidents of the three bodies here stated
The bodies - Federation of All India Petroleum Traders (FAIPT), All India Petroleum Dealers Association (AIPDA) and Consortium of Indian Petroleum Dealers (CIPD) - who form part of 54000 dealers of OMCs - IOCL, BPCL and HPCL - took this decision at a meeting in Mumbai on Saturday. Ashok Badhwar, president, FAIPT told STOI that the UPF has unitedly decided to seek fulfilment of their long pending and justified demands from the OMCs.
The major grouse is that the OMCs executed an agreement with dealer federations on November 4, 2016 to resolve issues and demands of dealers and should be implemented as agreed, said Ashok.
This includes revision on return of investment, revision of dealer margin every six months, revised manpower requirement, fresh study on petroleum handling losses, product transportation issues, and ethanol blending without proper equipment. All these issues are neglected, he said.
The OMCs continue to flout letters addressed by the three associations in the last 11 months including a letter by the cabinet secretariat on June 28, he said. The OMCs recently (October 2) amended the marketing discipline guidelines to penalize retail outlet dealer up to Rs 2 lakh as against monthly business return of Rs 27,500 on 170-kilo litre national throughput volume basis, which is arbitrary, unjustified and unconstitutional, he maintained.
On the "zero tolerance policy" adopted by OMCs, Ashok said it is welcome provided it applies to depots of OMCs who supply fuel. Equipment manufacturers themselves do not guarantee a 'zero tolerance' behavior of their equipment, he said, adding yet OMCs penalize dealers with suspension of their business even though the variation is within limits prescribed by the Weights and Measures Act.
The OMCs must also reconsider the daily price mechanism, he said.
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