HYDERABAD: Demanding that the recently introduced policies of central government of daily revision of petroleum prices and home delivery of petrol be scrapped and that the petroleum products should be brought under GST regime to benefit consumers, United Petroleum Front (UPF) has decided to keep shut petrol pumps across the country on October 13 for 24 hours. UPF, a consortium of three national bodies representing 54,000 petroleum dealers across the country. The association said that the daily price mechanism has not benefited anyone and should be reconsidered. The protest is being conducted against various other demands not being met by the public sector oil manufacturing companies (OMC)—IOCL, HPCL and BPCL.
UPF said the OMCs executed an agreement on November 4 last year with federations of petroleum dealers to resolve various issues raised by them including revision of return on investment for dealers reviewing the dealer margins every six months, revising employed manpower. It also demanded that the zero tolerance policy be extended even to the depots run by OMCs. The association threatened that if their demands are not met, all sales and purchases of petroleum products will be halted indefinitely from October 27.