VASCO
All Goa Petrol Pump Owners Association President Paresh Joshi on Friday said the recent fall in fuel prices may have benefited many people but petrol pump owners had to face heavy losses as they were asked to purchase fuel stock at higher rates.
Speaking to reporters, Joshi said almost every petrol pump had reported blockage of money with stocks being purchased a day before the price fall at the behest of oil companies.
“All oil companies who supply fuel to us were supposed to be on leave on account of Diwali and they informed us to fill our stock fully because there should be no shortage of fuel.”
“We agreed to their request, but the next day we had to face a price drop on petrol by Rs 12 and diesel by Rs 17, after we had filled our stock to full capacity,” said Joshi.
He claimed that with an average of 20,000 litres on every tank, petrol pump owners on average faced a setback of a minimum of Rs 2.5 lakh.
“We received information from around 42 petrol pumps and the loss is around Rs 2.47 crore from only these 42 pumps. We will have to struggle to recover the losses as our margin is minimal,” said Joshi, while appealing to the government to provide support to the petrol pump owners.
“With such a huge price cut, it proves that the government has the mechanism to reduce fuel prices. Even during the Covid times, the price of fuel was rising and they should have tried to control the price then, with this mechanism, as prices in the international market were also down.”
“If the government can bring down the fuel price by a significant level and in one shot, it is better to stop daily price fluctuations and change prices once a fortnight or once a month as it would be better for people as well," Joshi added.
Govt must offer VAT compensation of Rs 7 for unsold fuel stock: Joshi
VASCO:
All Goa Petrol Pump Owners Association President Paresh Joshi said oil companies had supplied fuel to petrol pumps after reducing excise duties and after a price reduction.
"This shows that the government has reduced excise duties of the stock present with oil tanking companies without which as per rule they cannot offer us a reduction in excise prices unless it is a discount. If the government has given concession and benefit of taxation (Excise, VAT) to oil companies on the stock present with them, then we request them to follow suit with us as well.”
“The oil tanking companies have full details of all stocks with us and they must extend the benefit and relief to us as well on our unsold fuel stock. We also appeal to our State government that they have reduced the VAT by around Rs 7 and this benefit must be given to us as well on unsold stock on 140 petrol pumps in Goa, as we have gone through major losses due to sudden price fall in fuel," said Joshi.
