The Hindu : Kerala / Kochi News : Petroleum traders plan strike on April 18

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 13, 2005

Kerala

Kerala - Kochi

Petroleum traders plan strike on April 18

By Our Staff Reporter

KOCHI, APRIL 12. The All Kerala Federation of Petroleum Traders (AKFPT) has decided to close all petrol retail outlets in the State on April 18 in response to a strike called by the Federation of All India Petroleum Traders.

The strike is to press the long-pending demand for revising dealers' commission and a few other demands to take on private oil companies.

All outlets will remain closed from the midnight of April 17 to the midnight of April 18, said David T. Mooken, president of the AKFPT, at a press meet here on Tuesday.

The traders are demanding a 5 per cent commission on the invoice purchase price of the product which is now at 1.7 per cent for petrol and 1.4 per cent for diesel. Among some of the other demands raised by the traders in the State is uniform pricing of petroleum products across the country. Owing to variation of sales tax rates among neighbouring States, there is inter-State smuggling of products and loss of sales to dealers in places neighbouring other States.

Reservations

Mr. Mooken along with K.C. Philip, secretary of AKFPT, and M. Radhakrishnan, coordinator, voiced his reservations about the oil industry's readiness for competing with private players. They said sales loss would affect public sector companies.

In a note highlighting the demands, the AKFPT leaders said the dealers were not being given temperature-variation allowance despite a written commitment by players in the oil industry. The parameters of evaporation and handling losses faced by petroleum traders need to be re-evaluated, Mr. Mooken said. Since the introduction of unleaded petrol, low sulphur diesel, premium fuels like Speed, X-tra mile, Hi-power to meet certain standards set by the oil industry, the losses have considerably increased, he added.

The loss of petrol is 1.4 per cent and diesel is 0.8 per cent against the old industry standards where the loss was 0.6 per cent for petrol and 0.2 per cent for diesel.

The traders also said that they should be provided with quality check equipment at petrol outlets to ensure correct specifications of products when load is received through tank trucks.

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