Punjab govt to bypass Centre fuel hike, directs transport bodies to buy diesel from retail pumps
The Centre had announced dual pricing regime for diesel whereby bulk consumers including railways, state transports will have to pay market rate of diesel which is Rs 10.81 a litre costlier than subsidised diesel, priced at around Rs 45 a litre.
“We have asked Punjab Roadways and PRTC to source diesel from their nearest private fuel pumps as it is not affordable to pay Rs 10 per litre more for diesel (than the subsidised rate),” Secretary, Punjab Transport, Mandeep Singh told PTI here Sunday.
Punjab Roadways and Pepsu Road Transport Corporation (PRTC) would have to shell out additional amount of about Rs 50 crore and Rs 35 crore per annum, respectively, if they buy diesel at market rate. The government owned transport bodies buy diesel in bulk from oil marketing companies. As per the measure announced by the Punjab government, state transport bodies will source diesel from the retail filling stations nearest to the depots to cut operational cost.
“Directions have been issued to general managers of depots to get quotations for supplying diesel from private fuel pumps within 3-km radius of depot so as to get lowest rate for diesel supply,” PRTC, MD, DPS Kharbanda said.
Currently, both PRTC and Punjab Roadways are buying diesel in bulk from Indian Oil to meet its fuel requirements. PRTC has a fleet size of 1,023 buses
