Hyderabad: Oil marketing companies have made all the arrangements for the roll out of daily revision of fuel prices from Friday.
While the revised rates will be automatically updated at midnight every day at petrol pumps using automated fuel dispensers, they need to be updated manually in non-automated fuel dispensers.
The civil supplies department and oil marketing companies have formed special teams to inspect non-automated petrol pumps at random.
Petrol pump dealers too geared up to launch the new initiative though there was some opposition initially over automation issues.
In the new system, there will be not only change in fuel prices every day but also from one petrol pump to another depending on transportation cost incurred to transport fuel.
Indian Oil Corporation DGM V. Balasubramanyam (planning and coordination) said, “With fuel prices set to be revised daily at 6 am from June 16, IOCL has tested all the protocol systems related to dealers and customers to ensure successful roll out of dynamic pricing structure.”
IOC has set up 87 control rooms across the country to monitor the roll-out.
OMCs will communicate the new prices to dealers by customized SMSs, e-mails, mobile app and web portal.
The trial runs held earlier at five cities including Vizag helped ensuring dealer data correctness. It ensured 100 per cent accuracy in communicating the daily price change to every dealer.
Petrol pumps to see chaos
With the daily revision of fuel prices beg-inning on Friday, petrol pump owners are in a tizzy trying to figure out the logistics.
They had some relief when oil marketing companies changed the price announcement timings from 12 midnight to 6 am, as this would allow them to function with existing staff instead of employing more manpower for the night. They are now anticipating a chaotic situation during the morning rush hours.
A consortium of pet-roleum dealers joint secretary Rajiv Amar-am said, “Both manual outlets and automatic outlets will face a chaotic situation. It takes at least an hour to change the price and the dealer has to go to each pump as the password will be with him. We are not opposing this daily price system but the implementation is a tough job. Sales for an hour would be stopped whi-le changing the pricing. Customers will have to wait. In non automated pumps, customers will have to wait long hours.”
The dynamic pricing policy was devised because global prices fluctuate and the government is keen to pass on the slightest benefit from this to the customer.
The new system was tested in five cities since May 1and has been quite a success, according to the ministry of petroleum and natural gas.
SMS: Customers may also cross-check the prices by sending this SMS: RSP< SPACE >DEALER CODE to 92249-92249. The dealer code of each petrol pump would be displayed in the petrol pump premises.
Mobile app: Download IndianOil’s mobile app ‘Fuel@IOC’ to check daily prices.
Web: Visit www.iocl.com and log on to http://uat.indianoil.co.in/ROLocator/
