With police clamping down on vehicular movement, the consumption of fuel has further come down. Managements of various petrol bunks said they are struggling to pay salaries to their staff and as the sales were hit badly in March. They are worried that same situation would continue even this month.
Telangana petroleum dealers’ association president Amarender Reddy urged the oil marketing companies to exempt them from licence fee on fuel during the lockdown period. He also urged the central and state governments to announce Rs 5 lakh insurance to the staff of petrol bunks, particularly delivery personnel who are risking their lives and working to provide refill to the motorists during the lockdown period.
As per the records available with the office of the state-level coordinator for oil companies in Telangana, 1.45 lakh kilo litres of petrol was sold in March 2019 compared to 1.27 lakh KL in March 2020 in Telangana. One KL is equal to 1,000 litres. Likewise, 2.84 lakh KL diesel was sold in March 2019 when compared to 2.07 KL in March 2020.
Oil marketing companies have statistics of oil sales for the entire month of March and are yet to take out the sales for the exact number of days of lockdown period.
However, an official from the office of the coordinator for oil companies said there was not much of an impact on sales of fuel when the statistics for the entire fiscal 2019-20 are taken into consideration, as the lockdown period is distributed over two months, 10 days in March and another 14 days in April.
