India’s new liberalised petrol pump norms require licensees to set up a minimum of 100 outlets with at least

5 per cent of them in remote areas. According to a Gazette notification detailing the norms for setting up petrol pumps, the licensee would also be required to “install facilities for marketing at least one new generation alternate fuels like compressed natural gas (CNG), biofuels, liquefied natural gas, electric vehicle charging points etc at their proposed retail outlets within three years of operationalisation of the said outlet.”

The government had last month relaxed norms for setting up petrol pumps, allowing non-oil companies to market fuel in the world’s fastest growing market.

Prior to this change, to obtain a fuel retailing licence in India, a company needed to invest Rs 2,000 crore in either hydrocarbon exploration and production, refining, pipelines or liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals.

“Any entity seeking authorisation for retail marketing only should have a minimum net worth of at least Rs 250 crore at the time of making the application to the central Government,” the notification said.

It fixed the application fee at Rs 25 lakh.

“The entity needs to set up at least 100 retail outlets, out of which at least 5 per cent of the proposed retail outlets shall be set up in the notified remote areas within five years of the grant of authorisation,” it said.

The applicant will have to state in the application the source of supply of products, tankage and other infrastructure with capacity, means of transportation of products and year-wise number of petrol pumps proposed.