LAHORE: The Pakistan Petroleum Dealers Association (PPDA) on Tuesday announced to observe a country wide strike from November 05, 2021, to press the government for acceptance of its demands. However, formal announcement about the strike will be made by the Association on October 28 in the federal capital if their demands are not met till that date.

PPDA Secretary Information Khawaja Atif, President Punjab Irfan Ellahi, Jahanzeb Malik, Chaudhry Asim and others announced this while addressing a press conference at Lahore Press Club (LPC) on Tuesday.

They claimed that their profit margin had not been increased since March 2013. They demanded that profit margin for the whole country should be same. A third party audit of expenses of petrol pumps was conducted by the government in 2013 but its report was never made public. They said petrol pumps never observe a holiday and they should be given suitable profit margin.

They said petrol pumps are paying 12.5 per cent advance tax while their profit margin is just 03 per cent. Petroleum products prices are being increased frequently and oil marketing companies stop supply of oil whenever there are rumours of increase in POL prices.

Association's Lahore President Chaudhry Muhammad Asim and Vice President Chaudhry Nauman Majeed alleged that there was no writ of the government as oil companies stop supply of oil to dealers before any hike in the POL prices. They said work timings of depots are till 5:00 pm but trucks of the petrol pumps are forced to leave the depot premises at 4:00 pm.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021