The All Manipur Petroleum Dealers on Thursday took an unanimous decision to shut down oil pumps for three consecutive days starting from Friday due to the ongoing conflict which has crossed more than nine months in the state.
The dealers have demanded the state government to liaise with banks to exempt the interest during the ongoing conflict, extend EMIs, and provide moratoriums without interest by considering their plight.
They also demanded to protect them from the expected, sudden decrease in RSP (price reduction) overnight and give them a 14-day prior notice instead so that decrease in price can be accommodated accordingly.
Speaking to the media in a hotel located at Imphal, the dealers said that every retail outlet, right from the day they started operating, has been engaged in providing monetary help and assistance to the CSOs, local clubs, student organisations and many others related to any issues in Manipur for years.
In addition, dealers have been contributing happily towards the various sections of society, groups, clubs, organisations towards the safeguard or ongoing crisis of Manipur 2023-24, dealers said.
Now, the dealers have been pushed to the stage of closing the retail outlets due to sales drop or economic crisis related to the conflict, heavy losses incurred during COVID-19 pandemic as well as the price reduction in an unreasonable manner by the government. The exorbitant demands raised by various miscreants, groups have further led the dealers to face fear and anxiety for their staff and their associated families, they said.
Unlike any other businesses where market rate (MRP) in Manipur can be inflated to pay the illegal taxes or demands to sustain their business, “We petroleum dealers have no means to compensate the current illegal taxes or demands as we need to sell out products at government fix rate,” said the dealers.
They are not in position to face such an unconducive environment alone. Hence, they appealed to the government to understand their depleted situation and appealed to the public to support them in fulfilling their demands to the government as they are still part of society.
They also highlighted that retail outlet dealers of petroleum products are one of the genuine business who pays highest taxes to Manipur government as they are paying advance VAT taxes to the government of Manipur at the rate of Rs 19.55 INR for petrol per liter 25 percent and Rs 10.11 INR for diesel per litre 13.5 percent.
At the purchase of every 10 liters of petrol, one pays Rs 195.6 as state VAT taxes to the government. Similarly if one purchases 5 litres of diesel, then one pays Rs 50.55 as state VAT taxes.
“We are one of the few businesses where we pay tax upfront and then collect the tax from the public after selling the product to customers,” said the dealers, adding that investment is getting stuck till they sell off their product.
The dealers owning tank trucks are also forced to pay yearly and trip wise illegal taxes by miscreants on both highways where a dealer is paying it from the same earning from the fixed transportation rate since 2013, he mentioned.
At present, BPCL to deliver the product ‘to and fro’ via Imphal-Jiribam-NRL takes around 15 days (around 1600km) whereas for IOCL via Imphal-Jiribam-Guwahati takes around 10 days (1161km) and via Jiribam-Silchar takes around six to seven days (530km) to deliver the product for one single load, informed dealers, adding that huge investment is required to maintain the product availability due to long transit time.
