Local and nationwide ’no purchase no sale’ strike from July 12, for petrol outlets

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangaluru, July 4, 2017: Local  Petrol bunks in DK and Udupi as in rest of India could go dry from July 12 following a decision by All India Petroleum Dealers’ Association (AIPDA) to resort to ’no purchase no sale’ agitation from that day. The AIPDA will also resort to ’no purchase’ agitation on July 5 to register its opposition to daily price change system ushered in by the oil marketing companies from June 16. This follows failure of talks of AIPDA with OMCs to thrash out the issue on June 28.

K Vishwas Shenoy, general secretary, Karnataka State Federation of Petroleum Dealers (KSFPD), is reported to have said that the federation has learnt about the failure of June 28 talks and the national body has accordingly given a call for one-day ’no purchase’ agitation on July 5 and indefinite agitation of ’no purchase, no sale’ from July 12. The AIPDA had a stormy three-hour meeting with OMCs and statistics of losses incurred by the dealers was presented, Vishwas said.

"AIPDA requested for a rollback to fortnightly revision of prices. Though OMCs agreed and understood that price protection was valid demand and so was need for part load supply, they could not arrive at any decision," he said, adding, failing any communication from OMC’s regarding their stand, decision was taken in favour of the protest. "Ajay Bansal, president, AIPDA has confirmed the decision to go ahead with the protest as per the above calendar," he said.

Noting that the federation has extended issue based support to AIPDA, Vishwas said, "KSFPD will be adhering to the protest call as mentioned above. However, our intention is not to cause any inconvenience to general public," he said while also urging motorists to fill up their tanks on July 11. The July 5 ’no-purchase’ is not going to cause any trouble to the motorists as dealers would have kept sufficient stock of fuel in outlets. But it will record no sale on part of OMCs.

This is because no indents will be placed and terminals across the nation will face working time loss, he noted. Incidentally, prices of both petrol and diesel have been on a downward spiral since June 16 when national embraced daily price change mechanism. While the prices did rebound marginally on July 3, the dealers have suffered enough losses on the stocks held by them in the last 18-days, and can no longer bear such losses.