Petroleum dealers hand over Memorandum to PMO demanding increase in dealers’ margin

Hundreds of petroleum dealers from across Punjab handed over a Memorandum to the PMO, Minister of Petroleum, Secretary of Petroleum, and Chairmen of oil companies through the office of State Level Coordinators at Indian Oil Bhavan on Thursday. Monty Sehgal, spokesperson for the Petrol Pump Dealers Association Punjab (PPDAP), said that the petroleum dealers of PSU Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) in Punjab are deeply aggrieved at the lack of response from the OMCs regarding our several representations about 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 OMCs. The dealer margins were to be revised twice in January and July of each year, and the same was reiterated in the industry meeting held on November 4, 2016, during discussions 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, as 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, 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.”

“Furthermore, we expect a fair margin that provides us and our employees a decent livelihood and gives us a decent return on our investments. Unable to bear the present state of affairs any further, we submitted this representation,” he informed.

“We demanded 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. Manjeet Singh, General Secretary of the Association.

“We also sought slab-wise increase: 8% up to 150KL, 7% for 150KL to 300KL, 6% for 300KL to 450KL, and 5% for 450 KL and above for the future to support low-selling dealers,” he remarked.