Petrol pump owners to go on strike from April 23

Motorists could be in for tough days ahead, as petrol pump dealers prepare to go on a countrywide strike from April 23.

The Federation of All India Petroleum Traders recently wrote to the Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Jaipal Reddy, informing him that the government’s failure to implement the recommendations of the Apoorva Chandra Committee,  appointed by the ministry, had forced them to go ahead with the extreme measure of a strike.

The recommendations deal with an increase in the commission paid by oil companies to petrol and diesel dealers, who claim that the hike is much less than what was mandated by the Chandra committee.

“The recommended increase in the dealers' commission was Rs 393/kilolitre (kl) for petrol, but for reasons unknown to us and best known to the ministry, the increase announced in the ministry's communication to the oil companies was Rs 281/kl," reads the letter by Ashok Badhwar, president of the FAPT. There are 3,300 petrol pumps in Maharashtra.