Near zero fuel sale in Mohali areas

Sanjay Bumbroo

Tribune News Service

Mohali, November 6

Petrol stations located near Chandigarh border wore a deserted look with people preferring the UT to Mohali where petrol is Rs11.95 costlier. Chandigarh slashed VAT on fuel by Rs7 yesterday.

Dealers pin hopes on Punjab Govt

Ashwinder Singh Mongia, a spokesman for the Petrol Pump Dealers Association, Punjab, said the association had taken up the matter with state Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal who had assured them that he would soon take a decision in this regard. He said the state government should take a populist decision keeping in view the coming Assembly elections in the state.

Near zero sale was reported from around 64 filling stations located on Chandigarh border. Petrol is costlier by Rs11.95 per litre and diesel by about Rs9 per litre in Mohali than Chandigarh.

The UT Administration had announced the reduction in VAT on fuel immediately after the Centre announced a cut in the duty on fuel as a Diwali gift to the citizens of the country. During a random survey of the filling stations in Mohali by this reporter, hardly any customer was found there and workers were sitting idle. A worker at a filling station said on Friday, a few customers visited the pump to get fuel but today, no one had come till 4 pm.

Ranjeet Singh, a resident of Sohana, said petrol was cheaper by Rs11.95 in Chandigarh, so he visited the Sector 52 petrol station in Chandigarh to refill the tank of his car. Petrol dealers say as the diesel price in Himachal Pradesh (Rs80 per litre) is even lower than Chandigarh, it would lead to the smuggling of fuel from the hill state.

Ashwinder Singh Mongia, a spokesman for the Petrol Pump Dealers Association, Punjab, said earlier fuel prices were very low in Punjab and now there was a big difference in the prices of petrol and diesel in Haryana, Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh where the state governments had reduced VAT. He claimed that there was zero sale at the filling stations located on Mohali-Chandigarh border.

Mongia said in Punjab, which was an agrarian state, the cost of diesel was very high and it would not only affect the agricultural sector but also the industrial and business sectors. He said the association had taken up the matter with state Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal who had assured them that he would soon take a decision in this regard. He said the state government should take a populist decision keeping in view the coming Assembly elections in the state.

Meanwhile, sources in the Punjab Government said Cabinet was seriously considering bringing the fuel rates on a par in the Punjab area.