AP Asks OMCs to Ensure Uninterrupted Supply of Fuels to Bunks

Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh government has directed the Oil Marketing Companies--BPCL, HPCL and IOCL -- to ensure uninterrupted supply of petrol and diesel to the fuel bunks and avoid any trouble to motorists.

Civil supplies commissioner Saurabh Gaur held a virtual meeting with OMC representatives and the petroleum traders on Thursday. He directed the OMCs to ensure uninterrupted supply of fuels and said he would monitor the movement of fuel tankers and asked the OMCs to give login access by evening.

He faulted the OMCs’ claim of stopping fuel tankers of the petroleum traders on the pretext of ‘route violation’ and sought evidence of such a violation.

When the OMCs claimed there was no dry-out of fuel bunks, the commissioner said reports from the district collectors showed supply disruptions.

Petroleum traders complained that they were facing severe operational hurdles to run the fuel bunks and felt certain acts of the OMCs were causing artificial fuel shortages in the state.

They reported a delay in the supply of fuels even as they were making full and advance payments to the OMCs. Yet, they are delaying supply of loads by 24 to 48 hours unlike the earlier practice of supplying fuels on the same day of payment, the traders said.

The traders complained that the OMC’s depot officials were refusing to send in loads when the traders’ oil tankers reached them after full payment. Some field officers of OMCs, they said, even “verbally threatened to stop regular supply of petrol and diesel” unless the traders also lifted premium fuels that are costlier than the regular fuels.

Traders said the OMCs used to force them to lift excess stock of fuels at month-ends and even compelled them to extend the credit facility to supply fuels to mainly the bulk consumers. Now, they ordered them not to supply fuel to such consumers on credit basis, it was stated.

“If we stop supplying fuel to such consumers on credit basis, it would become difficult for us to recover the huge outstanding dues from them,” the traders said.

Petroleum traders sought a regular grievance mechanism especially during times of crises and appealed to the government to get OMCs to arrange a dedicated senior nodal officer and share his email ID to flag special issues directly in real-time.

Given the three day holidays from Friday to Sunday, mainly to banks, an understanding has been reached between the traders and the OMCs to supply fuels to the traders on a credit basis to avoid a dry-out situation in fuel bunks.

AP federation of petroleum traders general secretary P Ravi Kumar said, “We have brought our issues to the notice of the government and accordingly, OMCs have been asked to ensure supply of fuels without any interruption.”

AP oil industry general manager N Bhaskar Reddy said, “We have adequate stocks of fuels. For the petroleum traders who are prompt in payment, we are ready to do the supply on credit basis.”

“The sales volume of fuels has increased two to three fold in the last few days, we are witnessing a partial dry-out at some fuel bunks. It may take a few hours to get fresh stocks of fuel to them. We urge consumers not to do panic buying of fuel,” he said.