PESHAWAR: Like other parts of the country, petroleum dealers association has closed pumps in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), demanding the government to increase their ‘profit margin’.
According to the officials of Pakistan Petroleum Dealers Association (PPDA) in KP, the current profit margin is Rs3.9 liter on petrol and Rs2.74 per liter on diesel, which the association is demanding to increase. The association said that the government has assured to increase it 6% but failed to implement the commitment.
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Sources said that the profit of pumps per liter of petrol is 2.75% which the Petroleum Dealers Association has demanded to increase to 6%. On this demand the profit of pumps on petrol will be Rs9 while the par liter profit will reach Rs8. Sources said that apart from petrol and diesel, separate oil marketing companies also charge a profit of Rs2.97 per liter. With the dealers’ margin, the profit of these oil marketing companies also increases.
Chairman of petroleum dealers association, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Abdul Majid told Mashriq TV that the association has held several rounds of talks with the federal ministers after that they accepted the demand. He said the government has now backtracked from the commitment. He lamented that different new taxes have been imposed on petrol pumps and electricity price-hike have made it difficult for petrol pumps owners to continue their business.
Majid said that the employees’ salaries have been increased to Rs21, 000 on the direction of the KP government. He said that they are facing huge losses due to which the petrol pumps owners are unable to continue serving the people. He assured that the strike will remain peaceful.
There are 1600 pumps in KP, including 160 in Peshawar district, the association said that all the pumps will be shutdown. He said that the government has not yet contacted the association for dialogues which mean the government is not serious on the issue and want the association to continue its strike.
Citizens are facing severe problems due to closure of petrol pumps and asked the government to settle the issues and open the pumps so that the problems of the citizens can be reduced. The Pakistan State Oil (PSO) and Shell Pumps have not joined the protest. However, PSO and Shell petrol pumps are also partially closed in the province.
Federal minister for Energy Hamad Azhar said that the “illegitimate” demands of the pump owners will not be accepted. In a statement, Azhar said, “under the guise of strike at petrol pumps, some groups want an increase of their per liter profit to Rs9 that will put more burden on the masses.”