KARACHI, Nov 18: The petroleum dealers have decided to discontinue petrol and diesel filling of less than Rs1,000 through credit cards from Nov 21 to lodge their protest over government decision to reduce their commission.

Pakistan Petroleum Dealers Association (PPDA) chairman Abdul Sami Khan said that dealers cannot continue with the credit card system as banks were charging 0.9 per cent for service.

“If customers are ready to pay bank charges on filling of less than Rs1,000 of petrol and diesel on the spot, the pump owners would not be hesitant.”

Diesel and petrol filling of less than Rs1,000 through credit cards is not feasible for pump owners when their commission has already been cut, he added.

He said that a PPDA delegation would meet the petroleum secretary on Friday and seek his final reply regarding increase in the commission. If the government does not bring back commission to four per cent, the pump owners would completely stop procuring oil products from marketing companies, he added.

He claimed that around 50 per cent of the pump owners (members of the PPDA) all over the country have already suspended lifting diesel and petrol from the marketing companies.

In 2001, the dealers were allowed four per cent commission, but the graph of the commission continued to decline.

In March 2007 and September 2007, the dealers’ commission was cut by 40 and 39 paisa, and again on Aug 1, 60 paisa and 25 paisa were deducted from petrol and diesel, respectively. During the period of August 2008 to Nov 10, the government again slashed dealers’ commission twice by 56 and 50 paisas.

Now on Nov 15, prices of petrol and diesel had been cut by Rs10 and Rs3 per litre, respectively, but dealers margin had been reduced by approximately by 26 paisa which means that dealers would now be getting only 75 paisa on sale of one litre of petrol.

He said this further cut would not help recover the operational expenses of pumps, so the question of any profit does not arrive.

He recalled that five per cent commission was approved by the petroleum ministry.

Sami Khan said that the stocks of petrol and diesel in the country have been left for only eight days which is an alarming situation. The government should look into this situation seriously, otherwise petrol pumps throughout the country would go dry.He said that consumers as well as the dealers should get benefit of falling crude oil prices which has dropped to $55 per barrel from the peak of $147 few months back.

Talking about CNG gas, he said that the government should take action against those involved in stealing of gas by tempering of gas lines in the provinces other than Sindh.

He said that action should be taken against those involved in this game without any discrimination.

He added that the Sui Southern Gas Company Limited (SSGC) has installed gas meters at stations to check gas theft as metres are directly linked with satellite system.