Petrol dealers across the state, as a mark of protest against a cut in fuel prices, are likely to not refuel their tanks today. Since the much-demanded slash in fuel prices, they have been voicing their dissent, claiming they are incurring huge losses.
These dealers are a part of 70,000 fuel stations across 24 states who will participate in this agitation. There are around 150 fuel stations in Mumbai and 7,400 in the state. The decision was taken late on Monday evening.
Dealers said there has also been no revision in their commissions despite rise in petrol and diesel prices for the past few years now. Anurag Jain, the president of Delhi Petrol Dealers’ Association, said the move is unlikely to impact retail supplies as pumps usually have stock for two days and will continue to sell fuel on Tuesday.
The states where pumps would hold the protests and refuse purchase of fuel are Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland, Manipur, Tripura, and Sikkim. North Bengal Dealers’ Association and dealers in parts of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have also committed to join the protests.
Some of the demands include reimbursement of losses due to the reduction in taxes and duties that was done on a weekend while they refilled their tanks with previous prices as on May 20. On an average, each fuel station owner is losing anywhere between Rs 5 and Rs 15 lakh, they said.
Usually a pump owner refills three different types of fuel – regular petrol, diesel and branded petrol. The average tank capacity at any station for each of them is around 8,000-10,000 litres, or even more depending on the size of the fuel station. As a usual practice, these petrol pump owners refill their tanks on Fridays.
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