Consortium to boycott petrol dealers indulging in malpractices

Parveen Arora

Tribune News Service

Karnal, April 30

The Consortium of Indian Petroleum Dealers (CIPD) and the Petroleum Dealers Welfare Association (PDWA), Haryana, have decided to boycott dealers indulging in malpractices as unearthed at various filling stations in Lucknow. Filling stations in Lucknow have been found using chips at the dispensing units to curtail the supply of petrol and diesel to customers.

The associations have written letters to all oil companies and demanded stringent action against dealers found indulging in malpractices so that a strong message could be conveyed. They have said such malpractices are not possible without the connivance of officials of the oil companies and demanded action against them.

Shamsher Singh Gogi, a member of the CIPD steering committee, and state president of the PDWA, Haryana, told The Tribune today that, “We condemn the shocking and shameful act of petroleum dealers to unlawfully use chips on dispensing units to short supply petrol and diesel to consumers. This has spoiled the name and image of the whole petroleum industry”.

Such malpractices need to be investigated with a zero tolerance level, he added.

“We have written to all oil companies to find out black sheep among the officials who are promoting these malpractices, so that transparency and honest customer service could be maintained,” said Gogi.

He alleged that the automation system could not be tempered with without the involvement of oil company officials. He said oil companies forced dealers to take supplies without requirement and they get less quantity of fuel that evaporates due to high temperatures.

He reiterated the demand of the implementation of the agreement of November 4, 2016, between various oil companies and petroleum dealers associations. The oil companies had assured them of fulfiling their demands, including increasing dealers’ margin, releasing fuel to dealers in the permissible limit and compensate for loss caused due to evaporation of fuel during transportation by December 31, 2016, but to no avail.