SME Times News Bureau | 25 Oct, 2021
Petrol station owners in Punjab on Monday threatened to launch an
agitation over their demand for reducing VAT to comparable levels with
neighbouring Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, and Jammu and Kashmir.
Punjab
Petroleum Dealers Association President Paramjit Singh Doaba told the
media here the petrol dealers will limit their working from 7 a.m. to 5
p.m. from November 7 for 15 days.
"We are all losing sales
steeply due to higher VAT on petrol and diesel compared to the
neighbouring states and Union Territory. The non-revision of dealer
margins in the last four years and state-owned oil marketing companies
offloading their expenses on to dealers are hitting the dealers badly,"
he said.
Punjab has over 3,450 retail fuel outlets.
Association
General Secretary Manjit Singh said nearly 800 dealers in eight border
districts in the state are in extreme losses due to a drop of 70 per
cent in sales.
Interestingly, fuel prices have gone up by nearly
Rs 38 per litre in the past 18 months whereas the crude has risen to
just $85 a barrel from $70 in January 2020, the pre-Covid levels,
association spokesperson Monty Sehgal told IANS.
He said the
dealers across the country have been demanding rational increase in
margins in line with price hike to stay afloat and keep up with
increasing operating costs.
The association also threatened to go for statewide protest by closing down pumps on November 22.
