Talks between petrol pump owners and government-run oil companies regarding daily revisions in the prices of petrol and diesel ended inconclusively here on Tuesday.

An association of petrol pump dealers is scheduled to meet Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan in Delhi on Wednesday.

The state-run oil marketing companies – Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) Ltd, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL) – have announced that they will revise retail prices of petrol and diesel every day, in tandem with international rates, beginning June 16.

Right now, the price revision takes place every fortnight. The three companies piloted this dynamic pricing project in Puducherry, Visakhapatnam, Udaipur, Jamshedpur and Chandigarh from May 1.

However, petrol pump dealers are unhappy with the companies’ decision to expand this pricing to the entire country.

Ajay Bansal, President, All India Petroleum Dealers’ Association, told BusinessLine that the move hurts operating margins for dealers, as it increases costs and could possibly lead to inventory loss. The association represents the 54,000-odd fuel retail outlets used by PSU companies in the country. Another 5,500 are run by private retailers Reliance Industries, Essar Oil and Shell.

“We need more skilled manpower to feed in revised prices every day, which will increase our costs,” Bansal said. The prices had to be changed manually in 95 per cent of the retail outlets — both automated and non-automated.

“Also, if we buy at a certain price and later the price is revised downwards, this will hurt our operating profits. This move makes sense in the US where fuel is sold at a maximum retail price, not in India where there is no pricing freedom,” he added.

If their grievances are not heard by the government, petrol pump owners might decided to go on an agitation, Bansal added.

The Delhi Petrol Dealers Association has resolved to support the “No Purchase” “No Sale” call by other dealer associations. There are 40,000 automated petrol and diesel retail outlets in the country.

“But even automated pumps in Delhi do not support the automatic price change in the dispensing machines”, a statement from the Delhi Petrol Dealers Association said.

“Unless the price is pushed automatically through the automation system, petrol dealers are not ready to do it manually or fetch the price on a daily basis. This manual intervention can lead to errors and delays in operation of the petrol pump.” The oil marketing companies, for their part, say the move will ensure that even the smallest change in international oil prices can be passed down the line to dealers and customers, benefiting them.