Petrol pumps across the country will now operate only 9am to 5pm from today, to reduce their operating cost. Petrol pump owners will continue to run single shift operations until their demand of hike in commissions are met. This protest is expected to affect all fuel pumps attached to state-owned oil companies (Hindustan petroleum, Indian Oil and Bharat Petroleum).
The pump owners say that this new strategy will help them save electricity, manpower and fuel storage maintenance cost to a greater extent, which will indirectly affect their margins. The pump dealers get a commission of Rs 1.49 per litre for petrol and Rs 0.91 per litre for diesel. Dealers claim that despite multiple hikes in prices of both the fuels and also rampant inflation, the commission rates have remained unchanged.
This will cause a lot of problems for motorists as they will now have to plan their fuel stops in advance. However, owners confirm that petrol and diesel will be available for emergency services vehicle. However, the CNG pumps will continue to operate 24/7.
Also, Indian Oil, BPCL, HPCL will stop producing premium petrol and diesel as they claim that the sales of their premium products has drastically gone down, thanks to the government’s decision last month to cut excise duty on non-premium petrol by Rs 5.50 to Rs 9.28 per litre. However, the excise duty on premium fuel were left untouched.Bharat Petroleum sells its premium fuel named as Speed while IOC and HPCL sells under the name XtraMile and Power respectively.
