State petro dealers seek hike in margin

Jalandhar, January 19

Hundreds of petroleum dealers from across Punjab handed over copies of a memorandum addressed to the PMO, Minister Petroleum, Secretary Petroleum and chairmen of oil companies through the office of state-level coordinators on Thursday.

Monty Sehgal, spokesperson for the Petrol Pump Dealers’ Association, Punjab, (PPDAP) 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 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 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,” said Monty.

Paramjit Singh Doaba, president, PPDAP, said,” 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.”