Southern States - Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad   

Petrol tankers to go on indefinite strike

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD NOV. 29. Threatening to cripple the availability of petroleum products at filling stations in the twin cities, different petroleum tanker owners associations have called for an indefinite strike starting Sunday midnight.

More than 500 tankers supplying petrol and diesel to the filling stations, have decided to back the strike call in support of the four demands put forth by the Petroleum Tankers Owner's Association, Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy District, and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited Tanker Owners' Association.

Announcing the decision at a press conference here on Saturday, Syed Habeeb Ali, president of the Petroleum Tanker Owner's Association, and Syed Mansoor of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited Tanker Owners' Association, said the supply of kerosene, however, was exempted from the strike.

The immediate provocation for the strike, according to Mr. Ali, was the 30 per cent deduction effected in their bills by Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum. The deduction in the bill amounts was done without any prior information and in violation of the existing agreement, he alleged.

According to the agreement, each tanker was to get Rs. 653 up to a distance of 39 km which was brought down to Rs.523, Mr. Ali said adding, "these are not the rates at which we can sustain the supplies from depots to the filling stations."

The associations claimed that despite repeated efforts, no clarifications on the decision to slash the agreed rates were provided to them.

They also alleged that the oil companies in contravention of an earlier assurance were declining to allow the use of 15-year-old vehicles and not clearing their bills on fortnightly basis.

Mr. Ali said as per agreed conditions, oil companies had to pay the road tax as and when hiked by the Government, but the same was not being implemented. "The State Government has increased Tank, Trucks Road Tax on December 1, 2001, but the oil companies did not reimburse the increased tax," he said.

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