One factor for fuel shortage : Demand exceeds IOC's supply
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, May 04 2014: Corresponding to the ever increasing number of motor vehicles, the actual daily requirement of petrol in the State has risen to 130 Kls daily as estimated by some analysts.

There is a wide gap between this figure and IOC's figure.

According to IOC's calculation which is based on the sales record of previous years, the daily requirement of petrol in the State is 90 Kls.

Of the total requirement of 130 Kls of petrol, IOC has been contributing 90 Kls while NRL, BPCL and black marketers have been contributing the remaining 40 Kls.

Sales records of NRL/BPCL retail outlets opened in the State are provided to IOC's Divisional Sales Office, Imphal, sources informed.

According to sales record received by the Divisional Sales Office, there is a huge gap between the actual quantity of petrol supplied to NRL/BPCL ROs and the quantity of fuel distributed at the ROs.

But there is no sign of the State Government paying any attention to this unethical practice.

File pic of a petrol pump closed as it ran out of fuel stock

At the same time there is a strong possibility of NRL pumps paying VAT to the Government only for the quantity of petrol distributed to public openly.

As such, the Government need to pay special attention to the trade practices of NRL ROs.

On the other hand, some oil tankers under contract with IOC have been shipping in sub-standard petrol from Dimapur at cheaper prices using faulty means.

Transhipment of sub-standard petrol from Dimapur was one of the many factors responsible for fuel oil shortage witnessed in the State during the last week of April and May now.

Again some oil tankers escorted by CRPF from Imphal which were instructed to ship in kerosene brought sub-standard petrol after selling off kerosene at Dimapur and filling their tanks with low grade petrol.

This low grade petrol has the same density and temperature as genuine petrol.

At Imphal, the sub-standard petrol is supplied to ROs at a particular rate which would ensure additional profit of Rs 2 to Rs 3 per litre.

Those particular ROs and the transporters work under a tacit understanding.

After unloading petrol at these ROs, the tankers would go to other oil pumps and fill up their tanks with kerosene before reporting at IOC's Chingmeirong depot.

IOC's tankers are locked with locks and keys manufactured by Godrej.

Duplicates of these keys can be easily re-produced at Imphal.

Manufacturing a duplicate key costs Rs 1500 to Rs 2000, said the sources.

The annual contract signed between IOC and the transporters expired on April 30 last.

As a new contract is yet to be signed, fuel transhipment became quite irregular since the beginning of April.

The number of oil tankers which went for transhipment of fuel oils was much lesser than the actual number of tankers enlisted with IOC.

As the frequency of fuel transhipment fell dramatically, all the wrongful trade practices came to a grinding halt which resulted in shortage of fuel in the State, the sources added.