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Petrol pump dealers in Mysuru observed “no purchase day” on Tuesday as part of a countrywide campaign against the oil marketing companies.
However, there was no scarcity of petrol and diesel at pumps across the city and sales went on smoothly despite the dealers suspending purchase from the OMCs. The dealers had ensured enough stock over their protest on Tuesday.
The dealers also staged a demonstration in front of the depots of oil marketing companies to express their protest following what they called “financial distress” caused to them over the recent decisions taken by the Centre.
A press release said that the dealer associations had welcomed the relief given to the citizens of the country by the Central Government in reducing the prices of petrol and diesel (excise duty reduction). However, the sudden cuts have led to huge financial loss to the dealers. The Centre, in the past six months, had announced two major cuts in excise duty on November 11, 2021 and May 21, 2022 and the entire burden of ₹13 a litre on petrol and ₹16 a litre on diesel was passed on to the petrol pump dealers causing irrecoverable losses, the dealers claimed.
The Federation of Mysuru Petroleum Traders and other related associations demanded that the losses on account of excise duty reduction should be reimbursed by the OMCs and future price changes should happen in line with dynamic pricing mechanism (DPM). “A mechanism should be put in place to isolate the dealers from excise duty changes. Dealers should not make profit due to increase in excise duty nor should they be burdened with the loss due to reduction,” the release stated.
The association said dealers in 24 States took part in the protest.
