Summary Petroleum dealers refuse to join fuel relief scheme until subsidy payment mechanism is clarified, warning of petrol station closures if forced.
KARACHI (Web Desk) - The Pakistan Petroleum Dealers Association (PPDA) has announced that dealers will not join the government’s fuel relief scheme until the mechanism for payment of the subsidised amount is clarified, warning that petrol stations will be closed if they are forced to participate.
PPDA Chairman Malik Khuda Bakhsh, accompanied by association office-bearers and dealers, expressed reservations about the federal government’s fuel subsidy programme at a press conference in Karachi.
Vice Chairman Anwar Kamal said dealers would not participate in the scheme until the government clarified how the subsidised amount would be paid. He warned that petrol stations would be shut down if dealers were forced to join the programme.
He said the government had formulated the fuel relief scheme without consulting petroleum dealers. While welcoming the relief initiative, he said the association had reservations about its mechanism and called for relief to be provided directly to consumers through a simple process.
Chairman Malik Khuda Bakhsh said the fuel relief initiative was commendable, but dealers objected to the scheme’s implementation mechanism. He said the government had yet to clarify who would pay the subsidy to dealers.
The association demanded that the fuel relief amount be paid directly to consumers and that the previous mechanism used for fuel subsidies be retained.
The dealers said they supported the fuel relief scheme but demanded that implementation be halted until their reservations regarding the payment mechanism were addressed.
