According to a government order, which was approved by the Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily, henceforth state-owned oil marketing companies (OMCs) will not invest in opening of new retail outlets and the investment is to be made by prospective dealers only.
The order further states that the state-owned OMCs can set up petrol pumps only when the dealer is willing bear the Rs 1-1.5 crore cost of a pump.
The order also states that “OMCs may specify suitable standards of service or safety of retail outlets or equipment and operationalise this through a suitable retail outlet scheme”. All future retail outlets should be automated. The order came into effect from December 3, the date on which the order was issued.
The three state-owned OMCs are Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL). India has over 43,000 petrol pumps, perhaps the highest in the world.
In the last four years, the number rose from roughly 18,000 to over 43,000 currently. These numbers do not include the 2,500-odd outlets owned by private retailers like Reliance Industries and Essar Oil.
Reports suggest that the mushrooming of petrol pumps had led to throughput fall from an all India-average of 210 kilolitres per month three years ago, to just 130 kl.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.