Musadik sets conditions for increasing petroleum dealers’ margin

• Musadik Malik has made conditions to increase margin of petroleum dealers.
• The final report of dealers’ margins will be released on June 23.
• The dealers delayed a protest to close their petrol pumps.

ISLAMABAD: Minister of State for Petroleum Musadik Malik has made increasing margin of petroleum dealers subject to several conditions for their acceptance of their demands.

The state minister has made the increase in dealers’ margins conditional subject on employee salaries and working hours The Ministry of Petroleum team surveyed petroleum pumps in rural and urban areas and the data of 2000 pumps will be released on Monday.

The final report of dealers’ margins will be released on Monday. In the report, the provision of medical facilities, salary and working hours of the employees will be safeguarded.  If the petroleum dealers want to increase their margin, they have to do full filled all the conditions.

A day earlier, petroleum dealers decided to postpone their nationwide shutter-down strike for two days following assurances from the petroleum minister. The minister assured the dealers that their profit margins would be revised upwards within the next 48 hours.

An agreement was reached and signed by the minister, OGRA Chairman, Masoor Khan, and Pakistan Petroleum Dealers Association (PPDA) Chairman, Abdul Sami Khan. The agreement states that the strike is deferred until Monday, July 24, 2023.

Previously, the dealers issued a warning to close their petrol pumps indefinitely after the outgoing government failed to fulfil its promise of increasing their profit margins to 5%, equivalent to Rs12/litre at the current petrol and diesel prices.

The written agreement stated, “The increased margins will be ascertained based on actual data acceptable to all concerned stakeholders. This revised margin number will be announced within the next 48-hours.”

At the conclusion of the meeting, Musadik Malik stated that the government would collect petroleum sales data from 2,000-3,000 petrol pumps to determine appropriate profit margins.

However, another issue of concern remains unresolved as the LPG Industries Association (LPGIA) plans to proceed with its nationwide shutter-down strike on August 5-6.

Chairman LPGIA, Irfan Khokhar expressed doubt over the government’s decision to import 60,000