Retail outlets not to buy fuel from OMCs on May 31

Dealers say they lose ₹3 lakh to ₹15 lakh in view of the sudden cut in fuel prices

Fuel outlets in the State have decided not to buy fuel stocks from oil marketing companies on May 31, protesting against the summary reduction in prices by the Union government.

The Tamil Nadu Petroleum Dealers’ Association in a statement said the cut in fuel prices recently led to dealers losing between ₹3 lakh and ₹15 lakh. The Centre reduced the prices all of a sudden despite dealers requesting a gradual reduction or at least notification in advance so that they could avoid such heavy losses, said association president K.P. Murali.

Last year, during Deepavali, a similar reduction was announced. At that time, the dealers were advised to keep five days stock of petrol and four days stock of diesel, he said.  

Dealer margin had not been revised since 2017 when petrol price was around ₹60 a litre. “Now, it is over ₹100 a litre. We are forced to pay more to buy the same quantity of fuel. Our aim in this protest is to gain the attention of oil marketing companies,” he said.

The one-day protest would prevent the oil marketing companies from achieving their monthly sales target, added another dealer.