Dealers defer nationwide strike of petrol pumps for 48 hours

Association says strike postponed after meeting with state minister to increase profit margins of petrol dealers

KARACHI:

The Pakistan Petroleum Dealers Association (PPDA) on Friday announced that it is deferring for 48 hours a planned shutter-down strike of filling stations across the country.

The association, which had earlier said that they would close all petrol pumps from July 22 in protest of a non-increase in their profit margins, made the announcement to postpone the strike following a meeting with State Minister for Petroleum Musadik Malik.

According to sources, the minister assured the dealers of an increase in their profit margins. However, he did not agree to meet their demand for a 5% raise.

Sources quoted the minister as saying that the government would personally collect petroleum sales data from 2,000 to 3,000 petrol pumps in an effort to assess the appropriate profit margins that should be allocated to the dealers.

Read more: Dealers announce nationwide closure of petrol pumps from July 22

Earlier, the dealers had issued a warning, threatening to shut down their petroleum pumps indefinitely, citing the outgoing government's failure to fulfil its promise of increasing their profit margins to 5%.

During a press conference at the Karachi Press Club on Thursday, Abdul Sami Khan, spokesperson for the association, said that due to the prolonged strike, petrol pumps will only be operational for two days during the month of Muharram, specifically on the 9th and 10th.

He said that the current margin per litre stands at Rs6, but the PPDA has been demanding an increase of Rs5 in order to bring it to Rs11 per litre.

Abdul Sami alleged that the government was turning a blind eye to the rampant smuggling of Iranian petrol and diesel. According to the PPDA spokesperson, the unauthorised sale of Iranian petrol and diesel have caused a significant 30% decline in the revenues of authorised petroleum dealers.