For the last financial year 2015-16, overall fuel consumption increased to 183.5 million tonnes from 165.5 million tonnes in 2014-15. According to a report at Business Standard, a major portion of petrol dealers around the country in the Consortium of Indian Petroleum Dealers (CIPD) have announced to close petrol pumps on Sundays from (14th) May 2017.
CIPD has 25,000 petrol pumps in Southern India and Maharashtra. The reason for this decision they say is to reduce fuel consumption which is according to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of lesser fuel usage. The association adds that apart from emergency services like ambulance etc, fuel will not be available for anyone else from May. They are also considering reducing working hours to just eight from next month to reduce operational costs.
This move comes at a time when dealers are pushing the government to increase commission on fuel and some see it as a mark of protest.
All India Petroleum Dealers’ Association however said that they do not support the move as it will cause major disruption and inconvenience to normal public. However, they did acknowledge that they are also demanding increment in dealers’ commission.
Just to give you an idea, in financial year 2015-16 diesel consumption stood at 74.6 million tonnes (7.5 percent higher than preceding year) whereas in the same period we gulped down 21.8 million tonnes of petrol (14.5 percent higher than 2014-15).
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