Petrol pump dealers call off their October 13 strike

Petrol pump dealers have called off their proposed nationwide strike on October 13, Friday, reports ANI. The strike was called protesting against discrepancies in supply and demand to include petroleum products under the Goods and Services Tax (GST).

The strike called by United Petroleum Front, an umbrella organisation of three nationwide organisations of all petrol dealers would have affected 54,000 petrol pumps across the country. Petrol pump owners have withdrawn their strike after tough stance taken by oil marketers. On Tuesday, state-run oil marketers said they are baffled by the move as almost all their demands have already been met but warned that being an Esma subject they may approach the states to scuttle the strike.

Addressing the media jointly, marketing directors of the three state-run OMCs — IOC, BPCL and HPCL — rebutted dealers’ allegations point-by-point, and said in the last 11 months, their commission was hiked thrice, latest hike being on August 1, taking the total dealer commission to Rs 3.50/L for petrol and Rs 2.10/L for diesel and Rs 45/cylinder of cooking gas.

Indian Oil’s marketing director B S Canth said dealer commission was also hiked in November 2016 and March 2017. “Their demands are very unreasonable as …read more