Petroleum dealers announce countrywide strike on July 22

KARACHI: The Pakistan Petroleum Dealers Association (PPDA) on Thursday announced an indefinite strike, starting from July 22 (Saturday), ARY News reported.

According to the official notice issued by PPDA Chairman Abdul Sami Khan, the association has demanded the government to increase the distributors’ commission.

The notice adds that the association sent a letter to the Minister of Petroleum, Musadik Malik, to bring this and several other issues to his attention. However, the minister never responded to the association’s grievances.

Currently, the government allocates a commission of 2.4 percent per liter to the dealers.

The association stated that the strike will continue until the petroleum ministry takes concrete steps towards the issue.

Earlier, the oil marketing companies (OMCs) had written a letter to the Oil Companies Advisory Committee (OCAC) to the federal government, demanding to set OMC’s margin petrol and for high-speed diesel (HSD) at Rs12 per litre.

It was learnt that the dealers’ commission had been increased by more than 25% to Rs7 per litre in 2022, witnessing a hike in OMC’s margins from Rs3 and Rs3.68 per litre on petrol and HSD to Rs6 per litre in November 2022.