Chaos over fuel prices

Confusion prevailed at all the 125 pumps in the district and about 250 in Central Gujarat till this evening as some of the petrol pumps continued to sell petrol at the inflated price while others corrected the price to Rs 27.38. Express Newsline bought petrol from four different pumps around 2 p.m. at two different prices.

Navinbhai Patel, president of the Gujarat Petrol and Diesel Dealers Association and the president of the Central Gujarat Petrol and Diesel Dealers’ Association, admitted that though several pumps sold petrol at Rs. 30.64 a litre even till afternoon, most had lowered it to Rs 27.38 immediately after receiving the clarification from the Centre.

According to Patel, neither they nor the oil companies were to blame for the faux pas as everything was official’; the oil companies had sold the fuel on hiked’ prices and since the dealers had bought it at a hiked price, they sold it to consumers accordingly. According to reliable sources in the association, the Re 1 should have been added after calculating excise duty, sales tax, surcharge and commission on it, while some parties in the trade had added Re 1 hike to the previous price of the petrol and then levied the taxes, thus making it Rs 30.64 a litre. However, when asked about this, District Collector Anil Mukim told Express Newsline that it seemed to have happened in the wake of “some communication gap” and that he would discuss the matter with Association office-holders.

On this, said he would consider holding discussions with the district administration and if company refunded the excess money to pumps, they could also reciprocate it to the customers producing proper bills.

Top