The Consultative Committee of Parliament for the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, chaired by the Minister of State (I/C), Petroleum & Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan had a meeting at Mumbai today to discuss marketing of petroleum products in a competitive environment. The Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Sri Rajiv Pratap Rudy also attended the meeting.
The Petroleum Minister set the context of the meet by quoting Hon’ble Prime Minister “I believe government has no business to do business. The focus should be on Minimum Government but Maximum Governance”.
Shri Pradhan stated that Government has initiated various measures to revive our economy, promote investment in manufacturing, rationalize tax provisions, etc. which were also reflected in our Union Budget 2015-16. Oil & Gas is one of the six core sectors in India which besides being strategic in nature, is also pivotal to all other major social, agricultural, economic and industrial activities across the length and breadth of our country and thus has far reaching influences on other important spheres of the economy in general. Our country’s aspirations of high levels of economic activities and GDP growth would directly translate to much higher estimates of demand and consumption of petroleum & gas products in the coming period. Accordingly, marketing aspect of petroleum products play a critical role.
A well-regulated, competitive market structure increases benefits to consumers by providing them more choices, assured quality, services of international standard and at the same time also ensures that market players become more efficient, innovative and customer friendly.
The Government deregulated pricing of diesel in October 2014 and linked it to market prices. This initiative encouraged private players like Essar, Reliance & Shell re-enter the market and set up more than 3000 ROs across the country.
The Petroleum Minister said the resulting competition from entry of private players brought focus of all players on higher levels of customer service standards and enhance customer value proposition through retail automation, automated billing, soft payment options through credit-debit card facility, loyalty programs, branded fuels, cleaner gaseous fuels etc. and increased customer reach through focused network expansion particularly in rural and highway segment. Oil Companies are pursuing network expansion to ensure coverage of all significant points of consumption including the remote areas. At present there are 53,800 retail outlets in the country and estimated 32000 new Retail outlets are required over the next 10 years to cater to the growing customer needs.
As part of clean & green Initiatives,PSU OMCs have been actively promoting use of Ethanol in Petrol and Bio-diesel in Diesel. These initiatives will help in connecting the farmers with direct economic activity and cash flow. OMCs are also initiating Vapor Recovery System (VRS) at Retail Outlets to improve the quality of air at the Retail Outlets.
The Petroleum Minister stated that the Government proposes to play a vital role in creating the basic policy – regulatory framework within which a fair and open competitive market can exist and operate in an efficient manner and also ensure that consumer interests are also adequately protected. He further elaborated several consumer centric initiatives taken by Government and Oil Marketing Companies in marketing of LPG for enhancing consumer convenience, choices and also preparing Industry for competitive LPG marketing.
Shri Pradhan also stressed upon the need of similar improvement in marketing of other petroleum products like ATF, Kerosene,PNG,CNG,Lubricants,other petroleum products and petrochemical feedstock.
Hon'ble Members of Parliament raised various pertinent issues and gave valuable suggestions to improve marketing standards of petroleum products. Sri Pradhan thanked Hon'ble Minister of State of Parliamentary Affairs and Hon'ble MPs for their presence and valuable suggestions.
Secretary Petroleum, senior officers of the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas and CMDs of Public Sector Companies attended the meeting.
Courtesy: pib.nic.in
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