More than 70,000 petrol pump dealers across 24 states have decided to not purchase fuel from oil retailers on Tuesday to protest against the lack of hike in dealer commission over the last five years.
Petrol pumps will remain shut in Rajasthan from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.
"There was an agreement between OMCs (oil marketing companies) and dealer associations that the dealer margins will be revised every six months. However, it has not been revised since 2017," Anurag Narayan, president of the Delhi Petroleum Dealers' Association, said in a press conference on Monday.
Prices of auto fuels have almost doubled since 2017, and hence, the working capital in business has also doubled, he said. "The dealer commission is essentially a reimbursement of our expenses like salaries, electricity bills, bank charges, etc., which have increased manifold during the last five years."
The central government reduced excise duty on petrol by Rs 13 a litre and on diesel by Rs 16 a litre over the last six months. Association members present at the press conference explained that these cuts have caused a total loss of Rs 2,100 crore.
"Since June 2017, when the dynamic pricing mechanism was put in place,
excise duty has been revised eight times," said Narayan. "Of these, five-time excise duty reduction led to lower retail selling price, causing loss to the dealers."
The dealer associations demanded reimbursement of losses on account of excise duty cut by oil marketing companies.
Dealers across states including Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland, Manipur, Tripura, Sikkim, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and the North Bengal Dealers Association will be joining the protest.
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