'Reports on forceful selling of premium branded fuels baseless'

Chennai, Jun 25 (UNI) The public sector oil companies today sought to dismiss as ''far from truth and baseless'', reports about non-availability of ordinary petrol and diesel at their retail outlets and forceful selling of premium branded fuels.

State level coordinator of oil industry (Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry) V K Jaychandran, in a statement here, clarified that 60 per cent of the 335 retail outlets of IOC, BPCL and HPCL in the Chennai metropolitan area continue to sell both regular and premium fuels, while the rest have been converted to exclusive branded fuel stations.

Stating that there was no shortage of petrol and diesel in Tamil Nadu, he said the three PSU oil companies had cumulatively sold 2,21,448 metric tonnes of petrol in Tamil Nadu in April and May as against 1,84,669 MT during the same period last year, up by 20 per cent. Likewise, diesel usage for the period had gone up by 17 per cent.

Of this, branded petrol contributed to only 15 per cent and branded diesel nine per cent, he added.

Mr Jaychandran claimed that the oil companies were propsgating the use of branded fuels because of the large scale benefits they offer like increased mileage, decreased maintenance costs, lower emissions, and cleaner environment.

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