Pumps to cut working hours

Ravi Shinde, president, Petrol Dealers' Association, Mumbai, told Business Standard.

"We intend to limit our working hours at our retail outlets. This will bring down our cost of manpower, electricity and so on. Fuel at petrol bunks will be available only between 9 am and 6 pm," he said.

The Federation of all Maharashtra Petrol Dealer's Associations is working on a plan to further press for their demands by calling for a two-day strike in May which will be followed by a three-day strike in June.

More than 25,000 petrol pumps belonging to state-owned oil companies across the country downed shutters today in a one-day nationwide strike demanding a hike in dealers' commission on sale of transportation fuels such as petrol and diesel.

Petrol pumps operated by private companies such as Essar Oil, Reliance Industries and Shell did not participate in the strike. Shinde said, "The nationwide strike has been a major success. This is just the beginning."

Petrol dealers have been protesting about the inadequate margins on the sale of petrol and diesel.

The Federation has demanded an increase in margins to five per cent of invoice value. The Federation claims that dealers' margin which was 8.2 per cent in 1960 fell to 1.92 per cent in 2001 and have come down further to 1.52 per cent for petrol and 1.27 per cent on diesel .

"With the steep price increase in prices imminent in the near future, the viability of petrol pumps will be at stake," the Federation has pointed out.

Public sector oil companies pay 65 paise commission to dealers on every litre of petrol sold and 40 paise on diesel. The commission was last revised in 2002."We are on a day-long strike today. Petrol pumps all over the country shut operations at midnight.

"This is a 24-hour strike. We will intensify the agitation if our demands are not met," said Federation of All India Petroleum Traders president Ashok Badhwar in New Delhi.

Public sector oil companies claimed that there was no significant impact on its sales since customers had tanked up extra on Sunday.

Besides, company-owned outlets, constituting nearly 10 per cent of over 25,000 petrol stations in the country, remained unaffected, an Indian Oil Corporation spokesperson said.

FAIPT is also demanding uniform pricing of petroleum products all over the country and quality checking equipment at petrol pumps to enable monitoring the quality of products delivered by oil companies at the pumps.

"It is a paradox that while every other cost, including taxes, are going up each year, the dealer commission is getting reduced in terms of percentage of invoiced value," a pimp owner said.