Petroleum dealers call off strike after talks with oil firms

Petroleum dealers, who were on a two-day nationwide no-purchase strike since yesterday, today said they were calling off their future agitation programmes as oil companies have promised to look into their demand for hiking commission before December 31.

Hyderabad: Petroleum dealers, who were on a two-day nationwide no-purchase strike since yesterday, on Friday said they were calling off their future agitation programmes as oil companies have promised to look into their demand for hiking commission before December 31.

In the morning, the Consortium of Indian Petroleum Dealers (CIPD) said they would go on a full-fledged strike on November 15 to press for their demand to increase commission.

Besides, the dealers had said petrol pumps will be selling fuel for limited hours from Saturday and will not operate on Sundays or Government holidays.

However, they decided not to go ahead with these programmes after holding talks with representatives of oil companies in Mumbai.

"Our discussions with oil companies yielded results. They promised to address our issues (hike in commission) before December 31. So we are calling off our agitation programmes," CIPD Joint Secretary Rajiv Amaram said here.

The CIPD has demanded implementation of the recommendations made by the Apoorva Chandra Committee in 2011.

The committee recommended commissions of over Rs 4 for petrol and about Rs 3 for diesel per litre. The then UPA Government hiked the commission on petrol to Rs 2.15 and diesel to Rs 1.28 from Re 1 and Re 0.70, respectively.

Amaram said the dealers are supposed to get the arrears also from 2011.

The dealers had stopped purchase of fresh stocks of petrol and diesel at 54,000 fuel outlets across the country from oil companies from yesterday.

In Telangana alone, over 1,400 truckloads of petrol and diesel were not lifted yesterday and today by petroleum dealers in the State.