Daily fuel price change: Delhi petrol dealers to go on ‘no sale’ strike from June 16

Last week, the national association petrol dealers had threatened to stop purchasing fuel from June 16, across the country unless their demand for an automated system is met.

The Delhi Petrol Dealers Association on Tuesday decided to join the “no purchase, no sale” protest from June 16, unless the rollout of daily fuel price revision is postponed.

They are demanding an automated system from the state-run oil companies that feed most fuel pumps, to reflect revised prices, without which they want dynamic pricing of petrol and diesel scrapped. (AFP)

They are demanding an automated system from the state-run oil companies that feed most fuel pumps, to reflect revised prices, without which they want dynamic pricing of petrol and diesel scrapped.

Last week, the national association petrol dealers had threatened to stop purchasing fuel from June 16, across the country unless their demand for an automated system is met.

The Delhi Association’s decision came after their meeting with state-run oil companies failed to elicit any solution.

“The Oil Marketing Companies have jumped into this decision without checking the ground reality that the automation system installed at most of the pumps in Delhi is not supporting the automatic price change,” the Delhi association said in a statement.

It will take time to shift to the new price everyday, as the dealers will first have to wait for the state-run oil companies to convey the new rates, this has to be fed on all the oil dispensing machines and calculators, then the stock position will have to be measured and meter readings noted. Dealers will have shut their fuel pumps for a few hours every night for this, the statement read.

A majority of the nearly 58,000 petrol pumps in India are owned and operated by dealers. And 60-70% of these pumps are on the highways, said the Dealers Association.

A meeting between the national association of fuel dealers and oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan is expected on Wednesday.

The government-run oil firms have been in constant dialogue with the national and state dealers associations to break the deadlock.

If petroleum dealers stop purchasing fuel, most petrol pumps across the country will run dry from the early hours of June 16.

On June 8, state-owned oil companies such as Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd, decided on a pan-India implementation of daily price revision of petrol and diesel.

Currently, fuel prices are revised by oil companies on the 1st and 16th of every month.