By Press Information Bureau
NEW DELHI:Today in view of the reports received about the shortage of petroleum products in Tripura and the requests received from MPs of Tripura and Biplab Deb, BJP State President of Tripura, Minister of State (I/C), P&NG Dharmendra Pradhan reviewed the availability of petroleum products in the State of Tripura.
The supply of products has been badly affected due to the bad road condition of NH-44 to the State. During the last two months, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural gas had been writing to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways for improvement of the condition of NH-44.
Pradhan had also spoken to Minister of Railways to explore the possibility of movement of petroleum products by rail mode of transportation. Accordingly, the Ministry of Railways and MoP&NG have decided to move the Road Tankers using Railway Wagons based on the concept of Roll-on and Roll-off and necessary instructions have been issued to the field officials. It is expected that the situation with respect to supply of petroleum products in the State will improve significantly in the next few days.
Pradhan directed the Indian Oil Corporation to ensure adequate availability of petroleum products in Tripura at the earliest. IOC has reported that total 324 KL of petrol (against average requirement of 360 KL) and 800 KL of diesel (against average requirement of 900 KL) was supplied in the last two days to ease the situation.
Meanwhile, Pradhan informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply that the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas had announced a Bio-diesel Purchase Policy in October 2005, under which, Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) would purchase bio-diesel at a uniform price as may be decided by the OMCs from time to time, for blending with High Speed Diesel (HSD) to the extent of 5% at identified 20 purchase centres across the country.
However, OMCs could not procure biodiesel upto August, 2015 as biodiesel producers were not coming forward to supply their biodiesel at the prices decided by OMCs from time to time.
On 10.8.2015, the Government allowed the sale of Bio-diesel (B100) by private manufacturers to bulk consumers like Railways, State Transport Corporations and other bulk consumers. Also, retailing of bio-diesel blended diesel by Public Sector Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) has started on the same day.
As a result, the biodiesel procurement by Public Sector OMCs has started. As on 1.7.2016, 1.32 crore litre Biodiesel (B100) has been procured by Public Sector OMCs. During the current Financial Year also, OMCs have finalised a quantity of 4.01 crore litres of biodiesel for the period of April – September, 2016.
Besides, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has taken following recent initiatives to take forward the biodiesel programme :
A Steering Committee has been constituted in the Ministry to take forward the bio-fuel programme of the country. A separate Biofuel Cell has been constituted in Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas for dedicated focus on Biofuels. The Cell, besides being a technical repository on Biofuels, also monitors biodiesel procurement and blending by OMCs. Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) has revised the standalone Biodiesel (B100) specification and also developed specification for biodiesel blend from B6- B20.
Pradhan informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply today that the Government has authorized the Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) to increase the Retail Selling Prices of PDS Kerosene by 25 paise per litre per month (excluding VAT as applicable in different States/Union Territories) for 10 months. Pradhan informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply today that the Government has decided for supply of BS-IV auto fuels in the entire country by 01.4.2017 in a phased manner.
The Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has reviewed international prices of crude oil and petroleum products for the month of July 2016. In the case of PDS Kerosene, the under-recoveries for the month of August 2016 will be Rs 11.49 per litre (Rs 13.12 per litre in last month). The cash transfer to customer under DBTL will be Rs. 63.91, out of which Rs. 33.93 will be Cash Compensation on Domestic LPG by Govt. to consumers & Rs 29.98 will be the Cash compensation on Domestic LPG by OMCs towards ‘Uncompensated Costs’ to consumers.
