Moily planning to stop night operations in petrol pumps, to check fuel consumption

Oil minister M Veerappa Moily on Sunday said his ministry was planning to prohibit fuels pumps from staying open at night as part of the government’s plan to check fuel consumption in the country.

Moily, who recently wrote to the Prime Minister urging steps to shave off the massive spends on importing oil, has said that his ministry will mount an austerity drive to taper fuel consumption,

which is seen as the primary driver of the country’s current account deficit.

"There are various options that have been floated. Shutting petrol pumps during night is one of them. But we have not decided. It is just a proposal," Moily told PTI from Bangalore.

The oil ministry plans to launch a fuel conservation drive from September 16 to cut fuel demand by 3 per cent and save an estimated Rs. 16,000 crore or USD 2.5 billion in forex outgo.

Reacting sharply, BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said: "What is petrol pump? Government will close the country... Won't the people fill their car fuel tanks in the morning? This is a strange move by Moily".

If the Manmohan Singh government has run out of ideas to tackle the economic mess, it can take suggestions from the BJP, he said.

Oil secretary Vivek Rae,

however, said there was no plan before the ministry to order petrol pumps in cities to remain shut from 8 pm to 8 am yet.

Moily had also written a detailed note to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on shaving off upto $20 billion out of the $144.293 billion oil import bill of 2012-13.

The August 30 note does not talk of shutting petrol pumps in the night but details conservation campaign as well as raising oil imports from Iran to cut import bill.

Moily said many austerity measures were in the pipeline.

Shared From Hindustan Times

Latest News

LOADING LATEST NEWS....

Loading Blog Posts...

Loading Images...

Loading Videos...

Unknown

- Unknown Updated at: Sunday, September 01, 2013