Fuel pump owners in Punjab have asked the state government to immediate roll-back of infrastructure development (ID) fee on petrol and diesel, saying if their demands are not met within 3 days then they will adopt "no-sale" strategy.
"We have today given 72-hours notice to Punjab government through its Chief Secretary and we have demanded that the state government should immediately withdraw the ID fee on fuel," Punjab Petroleum Dealers Association, Executive Member and President of Mohali Petroleum Dealers Association Ashwinder Mongia said here today.
"If our demands were not met within notice period, then we will not purchase fuel for three-day to put pressure on the state government to withdraw this ill-conceived move," he further said.
Also Read
Dealers warned if their demands were not met, they could also resort to "no sale".
They had described the ID fee as "detrimental" to the interest of fuel pump owners, saying this move of the SAD-BJP led state government would cause drop in revenue to the state exchequer and would encourage large scale smuggling of petrol and diesel to the adjoining states.
They had feared 30-35 per cent drop in sale volume with anticipated decrease in revenue of Rs 400-500 crore from diesel alone.
Punjab Cabinet on May 20 had announced to impose ID fee Re 1 per litre on diesel and hiked the 'ID Fee' on petrol from the existing Re 1 to Rs 2 per litre as part of its decision to upgrade rural and urban infrastructure.
Punjab has 3,248 fuel pumps across the state with daily diesel and petrol sale of 94 lakh litres and 25 lakh litres respectively in the state.
After the imposition of ID fee levy, petrol and diesel prices in Punjab went up by Rs 1.30 and Rs 1.13 respectively.
