Pakistan Petroleum Dealers Association (PPDA) on Sunday cancelled the strike call given for Monday after the government agreed to raise their margin by 100 percent.
After talks with the association’s representative Abdul Sami Khan at Pakistan State Oil office, State Minister for Petroleum Musadik Malik said all the issues were resolved, adding that all the agreed points would be taken to the federal cabinet and implemented once endorsed by the cabinet.
The dealers’ representative chairman PPDA Abdul Sami Khan announced to call off the strike given by the association after successful talks with the government. Although, the government and PPDA did not divulge the agreed points, the sources said government agreed to raise the dealers’ margins by 100 percent from Rs 3.5 to Rs 7.
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In order to press the government to raise the distributors’ commission, the Pakistan Petroleum Dealers Association (PPDA) had declared that it would go on a statewide strike on July 18.
Posters about the dealer’s strike and demands were hung at gas stations in Lahore. The PPDA general secretary reported an increase in the minimum salary to Rs 25,000.
In addition, generating costs have increased as a result of load-shedding hours being prolonged and rising electricity rates. As a result, the PPDA demanded that the government uphold its promise to raise their commission to 6%.
The monsoon rains, which have flooded Karachi’s Keamari oil installation sites, have further complicated the distribution procedure. The operation of oil tankers has been halted due to a lack of a drainage system.
In response to rising oil costs, the PPDA had earlier issued a warning about the statewide strike and threatened to close all filling stations across the nation.
The PPDA chairman, Abdul Sami Khan, stated in a statement that the present rate of petroleum sales was unsustainable. He declared that dealers wouldn’t reopen until the margin on petroleum goods was raised after July 18.
The remark was made following an emergency meeting called by the PPDA where it was resolved that the stations would need to maintain a minimum commission margin of 6% in order to continue operations.
The existing gap of 3.5% was bemoaned by the administration as being unsustainable.
