Raid oil depots and pumps, demands Petroleum Dealers

By Muhammad Sudhir Chaudhry

LAHORE: Pakistan Petroleum Dealers Association on Thursday demanded that Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority should constitute a committee comprising of Ogra, media and district administration which will raid on oil depots and petrol pumps in order to find out the reason behind fuel shortage.

This was demanded by Pakistan Petroleum Dealers Associationin the discussion program of Lahore Economic Journalists Association.
On this occasion, President Lahore Chaudhry Nauman Majeed, Information Secretary Punjab Khawaja Atif, Malik Jahanzeb and President Leja Sudhir Chaudhry were also present.
Officials said that despite depositing the advance draft of Rs1 billion by more than 12,000 petroleum dealers of the country the oil companies are not giving supply to them.
Petrol pumps have a maximum storage capacity of 30,000 to 50,000 liters of petrol, while this storage has to be kept for three days as per the instructions of Ogra. Oil depots have a capacity of several lakh litres, this committee should check them and any irregularity or hoarding should be decided according to law. He said that the demand of petrol in Lahore is 40 lakh liters but the pumps are getting supply of 13 lakh litres. The supply of petrol is decreasing continuously since last one month.
He revealed that on the 10th and 20th of every month, oil companies decreased the the supply of pumps.
Cartelization has increased in this sector since last 6 years.
He termed the statement of Federal Minister Mussadik Malik as non serious. He said statement of the minister has created chaos.
Today, if the price of petrol increases, the supply will improve. Oil marketing companies are deliberately not supplying petrol. Millions of liters of oil are stored with the oil companies.