Wednesday, June 15, 2022
By Kamal Swami
2,000 Petrol Pumps On the Verge of Shut-Down in Rajasthan
The petrol and diesel crisis in Rajasthan has worsened badly in two days. According to reports, more than 2,000 pumps in the entire state, including 100 in the state capital Jaipur are on the verge of shut-down. In a statement by the petroleum dealers of Rajasthan, both BPCL and HPCL have stopped the fuel supply according to the requirement, and supplying only 33% of the actual demand. This is responsible for the fuel crisis in the state.
It would be interesting to know that the privately owned oil companies Essar and Reliance have also shut down their pumps. This has increased the load on the petrol pumps operated by BPCL and HPCL. In the words of Sunil Bagai, President, Rajasthan Petrol Dealers Association, the closing of petrol pumpers owned by Reliance and Essar has worsened the crisis of fuel in the state. Both these companies have almost 15% share in the market of Rajasthan. Due to the stopping of supply by these companies, the burden has directly moved on the dealers of government-operated agencies.
Moving ahead, Mr Bagai said, the second reason behind this crisis is the losses of both the fuel supplying agencies is increasing rapidly due to this they have restricted the supply. According to government officials, the existing fuel crisis in Rajasthan is not going get resolved in the next three to four days. Because even if both the key players start the supply, it will take almost two-to-three days to reach the situation of normalcy. The Rajasthan Petroleum Dealers Association has written a letter to the Minister of Petroleum regarding the decline in the supply of fuel within the state of Rajasthan.
