Punjab petroleum dealers demanding increase in dealer margins; to hand over Memorandum to PMO
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in News/ January 14,2024
Petroleum dealers from across Punjab will be handing over a Memorandum for PMO, Minister Petroleum, Secretary Petroleum and Chairman’s of oil companies through the office of State Level Coordinators at Indian Oil Bhavan Sector 19 Chandigarh on January 18.
Giving information here on Sunday, Monty Sehgal, spokesperson for Petrol Pump Dealers Association Punjab said that the petroleum dealers of PSU Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) of Punjab , are deeply aggrieved at the lack of response from the OMCs to heed our several representations regarding the revision of dealer margin.
He further said that our margin revision recommendations as proposed by the Committee Report on RO Dealer Commission 2012 (Apoorva Chandra Committee), constituted by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas – Government of India, are being withheld by the OMC’s.
The dealer margins were to be revised twice in January and July of each year and the same was again reiterated in the industry meeting held on November 4, 2016 between Oil marketing Companies and Dealer Representatives, he said.
“It is inexplicable that for six years now we have been denied any revision despite financial hardship and escalating expenses making it difficult for the majority of us dealers to survive. That we dealers chose to serve the nation despite huge capital losses during Covid-19 and were not compensated by the profit making OMCs during the same period is a known fact,”
Post Covid-19, the inflation and rising operating expenses have further exacerbated the financial situation of dealers. Retail prices of Petrol and Diesel have risen to almost double since 2016 but the dealer margin has not been increased, asserted Paramjit Singh Doaba President of Petrol Pump Dealers Association Punjab
Punjab petroleum dealers demanding increase in dealer margins; to hand over Memorandum to PMO. Furthermore, we expect a fair margin that provides us and our employees a decent livelihood and provides us with a decent return on our investments. Unable to bear the present state of affairs any further, we the dealers of Punjab hereby submit this representation to you today with the following demand ( retrospectively from the last revision), while similar representations are being submitted to your counterparts in other states of India, he informed.
We demand an immediate increase in dealer margins by Rs.4/Ltr , with immediate effect as an Interim Relief. Without this relief most of the retail outlets will become non-operational soon due to ongoing capital losses and increasing debt, said Dr Manjjeet Singh Gen Secretary of the Association. Above that we would also seek slab-wise increase as follows for future to support low selling Dealers: 1. 8% Up to 150KL 2. 7% for 150KL to 300KL 3. 6% for 300KL to 450KL 4. 5% for 450 KL and above, he remarked.
