Chennai

According to the general secretary of Tamil Nadu Indian Oil Dealers Association and vice-president of Tamil Nadu Petroleum Dealers Association Suresh Kumar, public need not panic as the fuel were sold as usual in all the outlets across the State. ‘’We have only stopped procuring stock from oil companies and the stir will continue on Friday,” he said. 

He said some of their demands included increase in monthly payment to dealers, no increase in ethanol percentage in petrol until infrastructure suitable for ethanol was ready, increase in allowed evaporation from six per cent on petrol to .75 per cent and .2 per cent to .25 per cent on diesel, temperature variation allowance on the lines of other states and revision in the Net Fixed Assets (NFA) of land on which OMCs run petrol pumps on 30 years lease and commission given for maintaining toilets in the bunks.’ 

“It is highly impractical to run the bunks based on the commission we receive now,” he added. The dealers have been demanding increase in their commission to five per cent from the existing three per cent. The present agitation comes in the backdrop of the earlier protest on October 19 and 26 when no fuel was sold for 15 minutes from 7 to 7.15 pm and complete blackout as all lights were switched off. 

The dealers have threatened to go on a ‘no purchase, no sale’ strike from November 15, if their demands were not met.

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