After the reduction of excise duty on petrol and diesel by the Centre, the All Haryana Petrol Pump Association has demanded that the state government follow suit. The organization has threatened that if the Haryana government ignores their demand, all dealers of the state will not buy oil from companies on May 31, which has been named 'No Purchase Day'.

The association said on Saturday that in the coming days, giving fuel to government vehicles will also be stopped.

This was announced by the All Haryana Petroleum Dealers Association during a press meet here. They said that the pump dealers are incurring losses of crores of rupees due to the arbitrariness of the government and oil companies.

"The state government should reduce VAT on petrol and diesel so that the constant loss to the petrol pump operators can be compensated," Anil Yadav, President of Petrol Pump Association told IANS.

"Excise on petrol and diesel has already been reduced by the central government but the state government has not yet decided to reduce VAT. In view of this, all petrol pump operators will register their protest for a day on May 31," he added.

"In the past five years, the price of petrol has increased by 160 per cent and that of diesel by 150 per cent, but the commission of pump dealers has not been revised even once. The Apoorva Chandra Committee constituted by the Government of India has also said in its report that 90 per cent of the commission that pump dealers get is spent on operating the pump itself. The expenses which have increased for them are not being met by the commission."

Association general secretary M.C. Gupta said that pump dealers should be kept out of the fluctuation of excise rates. "Full supply of petrol, diesel is given only after full payment of excise duty to the dealer. In such a situation, it is excessive to reduce the amount of excise duty back from their sale price," Gupta said.

"There are 4,000 oil pumps in Haryana and 200 pumps in Gurugram. The reduction in excise duty has resulted in a loss of at least Rs 5 lakh to each pump. Accordingly, the dealers have suffered a loss of more than Rs 200 crore," Manish Yadav, a Gurugram based dealer said.