Published On : Sat, Nov 5th, 2016

Petrol pumps call off ‘strike’ – get hikes in commission

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petrol-pumpNagpur: The Long standing demand of petroleum dealers of increased commissions has been assured and deadlines set for taking decisions on other grievances at a meeting held in Mumbai yesterday. This has prompted the various associations of Petrol pump owners to call off their joint action program. This form of protest was to be shown by curtailing pump timings to working hours of day and following every bank holiday, resulting in great harassment for 4 wheeler and 2 wheeler owners.

Through this, petrol pump owners probably wanted to make the point that they work round the clock, 24*7, to market the oil companies’ products and keep customers happy yet their hard work was not being adequately compensated.

There isn’t a feeling of euphoria though since the increase in commission is very paltry amounting to a few paisas each for MS (motor spirit – petrol) and HSD (High speed diesel).

The increase in margin is Rs.138/KL in petrol, and Rs.102 /KL in Diesel which will be effective from November 15th. In effect it means an increase f 13.8 paisa per litre for petrol and 10.2 paisa for diesel.

At the meeting held between the Oil Marketing Companies and CIPD and AIPDA ( petroleum dealers’ associations) at Hotel Marine Plaza in Mumbai, the other resolutions, which have been minutized this time, are as follows:

“Return on investment” shall be studied by a joint committee of above 3 to arrive at a satisfactory formula.

Dealers remuneration and earlier computational ‘errors’ shall be examined and recommended for finalization by 15th November too. This amount shall be added in the dealers revised commissions.

The dealer margin shall be revised twice a year : on 1st of January and 1st of July every year. (This has been one of the most persistent demands which was denied so far).

The revised NFA report shall be finalized by 30th November and implemented.

The man power study shall be commissioned by 31st December by an external agency who will give a report in 4 months. ( Since it has become mandatory for pump owners to provide facility of toilets and filling air they have to increase their staff for this purpose which need was not acknowledged by petroleum companies though all pumps nation wide have already complied with air filling stations and maintaining of toilets. For which road travelers are very grateful indeed!)

The HSD handling loss report shall be obtained from Indian Institute of Petroleum Dehradun by 30th November and recommendations implemented in next dealers’ commission revision.

Similarly Motor spirit (petrol) loss study shall be commissioned by 31st December 2016 and completed by 1st January 2018. One year later!

It looks like the ‘no purchase’ executed by all petrol pumps all over the country has elicited the desired response. Oil companies have woken up to the woes of their dealers and seem to be making an effort to improve the situation. Finally.

… Sunita Mudaliar Associate Editor