Fuel shortage: Ogra should form body to conduct raids on oil depots, petrol pumps: PPDA

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

This was demanded by Pakistan Petroleum Dealers Association in the discussion programme 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 Rs 1 billion by more than 12,000 petroleum dealers of the country, the oil companies are not giving supply to them.

Information Secretary PPDA Punjab Khawaja Atif said that petrol pumps have a maximum storage capacity of 30,000 to 50,000 liters of petrol. The pumps have the storage capacity of 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 has been decreasing continuously since last one month.

He revealed that on the 10th and 20th of every month, oil companies decreased the supply of pumps. Cartelisation has increased in this sector since last 6 years.

He termed the statement of Federal Minister Mussadik Malik as non serious. He said the minister has created chaos. Today, Atif said if the price of petrol increases, the supply will improve. He alleged that Oil marketing companies are deliberately not supplying petrol. He alleged that oil companies have stored millions of liters of oil.

Meanwhile, addressing at a press conference Chairman Oil Marketing Association of Pakistan Tariq Wazir Ali said that there is no shortage of petrol. He demanded that strict action should be taken against hoarders.

While talking about the availability of petroleum products in the country, he said that all the oil marketing companies have 20 days stock of petroleum products so there is no justification for the shortage.

Tariq Wazir Ali said that petroleum products are available in abundance in the country. He said that the people responsible for the shortage started panic buying when they heard the news of an increase in the prices.

He said that the Oil Marketing Association, Ogra along with the ministry, is monitoring the situation of petrol pumps.

Tariq Wazir Ali also said that neither there is any shortage nor is there going to be any. He said artificial shortage was created on the rumors of increase in the price of petrol. He stressed his hope that supply will increase in a couple of days.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023