In Kerala, there has been some new news about new regulations that have come into force in regard to buying of petrol and diesel. According to news reports, the petrol pumps in Kerala has allegedly put a cap on buying of petrol and diesel in wholesale. Customers will be allowed to buy maximum of 200litres of diesel and there has been a limit of around 5000 rupees per person. The report said that the reason for such regulations is because it is a step towards supply management so that the stocks in retail outlets can be available for a longer period of time and there may be an emergency and then stock outs. According to report the oil marketing companies are sending in fuel according to the short time demand and not the time window given earlier. Report said the pumps will now have enough stock only for a few days.So I had to take the decisionAs mentioned earlier in a Mathrubhumi report, both advancing of payment and withdrawal of credit based system has increased the strain at the fuel stations. Around 2,500 petrol pumps are spread across Kerala andmost of these stations need about 12,000- 24,000 litres of fuel from regular tankers on a daily basis. Daily sale varied a lot depending on the pump as on average, 10,000 liters are sold at the pumps in an urban area whereas far lesser at the smaller stations. According to the report by Mathrubhumi.com operators said that "The limit is imposed because we were having stock-outs".Limits not an indication of shortage.It is also been clarified that there is no shortage supply of fuel to the pumps officially country wide and temporary delays due to logistics may cause such disruptions, reports Mathrubhumi.com. It stated that representatives of Kerala State Petroleum Traders Association have affirmed the limits were to prevent the sudden shortages, but not an indication of shortages. Central government has maintained that India has sufficient energy reserves of all kinds. We have crude oil and gas reserves for about two months and LPG for about 1.5 month.Increase in Crude Oil pricesIt is alleged that the oil marketing companies are facing financial crunch as the price of crude oil prices has increased globally. It is alleged that thousands of crore rupees is getting lost per day on an average by the companies. However officials insisted that it is not a fuel shortage and bulk buyers would be more affected than the consumers of fuel as the limit is for managing distribution. Report also said that it's aimed at local level not the wholesale level, reports Mathrubhumi.com.Petrol and Diesel prices in KeralaPrices of petrol and diesel are already at a very high point in Kerala’s capital. The price of petrol at Thiruvananthapuram on May 13th was Rs 107.48 per liter. The prices were the highest in the entire South India, while in a metropolitan city like Chennai, the price of petrol was recorded as Rs 100.80 per liter. Prices of diesel at the capital city of Kerala were much higher than that in Chennai. The prices recorded at Thiruvananthapuram for diesel were Rs 96.48 per liter, in comparison to Rs 92.39 per liter in Chennai.
Around the web
