Near-dry-out situation continues in 15% of fuel outlets in State

Despite public sector undertaking oil marketing companies (OMCs) pulling up their socks and working till late in the evening, a section of dealers in the State continued to face near-dry out situation. Dealers said that this was despite OMC terminals filling 20% extra fuel on Thursday and Friday. “In some cases dealers did not get petrol and had to wait for their loads while getting diesel. Loads of dealers, who don’t have their own trucks, were also being delayed since they had to wait for their turn. Outlets were getting loads even late at night,” said a dealer. Near dry-outs were there in the case of 15% of outlets, in tier II and III cities. In one case a retail outlet went dry for three days at a stretch causing inconvenience to customers, said a dealers’ association office-bearer who did not want to be named. The situation will take time to ease out due to the backlog in indents, he said adding that demand in Chennai region was the highest. He said that since last month two of three OMCs — Hindustan Petroleum Corporation and Bharat Petroleum Corporation — were supplying fuel only on payment of advance and had withdrawn both month-end and short-term credit facilities. This had caused dealers to face extreme financial crisis. K. P. Murali of the Tamil Nadu Petroleum Dealers Association said that the OMCs must step in and help out dealers, who have been unable to reach zero balance on credit. “These are very low volume dealers and require hand holding. Ultimately, it will be the customers who will benefit from this,” he explained. Meanwhile, Consortium of Indian Petroleum Dealers General Secretary K. Sureshkumar said that with the Centre recently expanding the horizon of Universal Service Obligation to even retail outlets in remote areas, things are likely to look up soon. The USO, he explained included maintaining of supplies of petrol and diesel throughout the specified working hours and of specified quality and quantity; making available minimum facilities as specified by the Central government; maintaining minimum inventory levels, providing services to any person on demand within a reasonable period of time and on non-discriminatory basis and ensuring availability of fuel to the customers at reasonable prices.