With the pending Lok Sabha elections approaching, the government has told the oil PSUs to tank up upto their capacity to ensure that no shortage of petro products takes place during the elections when demands are expected to shoot up. The oil PSUs have also been told to defer their mandatory plant maintenance shut downs which usually takes place at the end of the financial year (in April-May) to ensure that no shortage takes place.The oil PSUs have been told to defer their plant maintenance shut down by at least two months, ministry sources added. The mandatory shut downs can take place after elections are over.The decision was taken at a meeting held last week by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. Subsequently, the ministry has also issued letters to the oil PSUs asking them to gear up for the elections and increase the stocks. The letter, signed by top ministry officials was despatched recently, sources in the petroleum ministry added.The main increase in demand during the election period is expected on petrol and diesel considering the fact that campaigning by the political parties involve use of a large number of vehicles. On top of that LPG and kerosene demand is also expected to shoot up, sources said.Oil PSU sources pointed out that they are gearing themselves up for the elections to ensure no shortage of petro products takes place during the period. The government has also told the PSUs to ensure that adulteration is checked during the period. “Experience has shown that during the election period adulteration is also on the rise”, ministry officials pointed out while stating that adulteration of petrol by mixing it with kerosene is the most common form of adulteration which needs to be checked.Meanwhile, the petroleum minister Ram Naik had also taken a review meeting of the ministry a couple of weeks back.Though the issue of tanking up of oil companies did not figure in that meeting, the minister had looked into other issues including the status by the private companies in setting up retail outlets as part of the deregulation of the petoleum sector, sources added.
