Petrol pumps decide to strike from Monday

Petrol pumps across the country have decided to go ahead with an indefinite shut-down from 20 September following failure of talks with state-run oil companies and the oil ministry over a new formula for dealer commissions.

The Federation of All India Petroleum Traders (FAIPT), representing around 38,000 petrol pumps in the country, has been demanding dealer commission as a pump price percentage as against the current fixed amount per litre.

The demand was made in June following the government's move to lift controls over petrol pricing and letting oil companies change prices every thirty days in line with international crude prices.

According to the federation's Ajay Bansal, oil company executives and ministry officials failed to take any initiative to resolve the issue. The official stand was that following the deregulation the decision on commission was to be taken by the marketing companies.

The executives, on their part, maintained that they still lacked the authority to revise petrol prices as diesel continued to be under government control and the decision was, therefore, at the ministry's call.

Last week, the ministry hiked dealer commission on petrol from Rs1,125 per kilolitre to Rs1,218 and dealer commission on diesel from Rs673 a kilolitre to Rs757.