Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Normal supply of diesel will continue: Tripathy

CHENNAI: Oil companies have assured the State government that the normal level of supply of diesel will continue, according to L.K. Tripathy, Chief Secretary.

Asked to elaborate the definition of the “normal level of supply,” Mr. Tripathy, who earlier held a meeting with the representatives of oil companies and industry, told mediapersons at the Secretariat here on Thursday that the regular level of supply would be 15 per cent over and above the previous year’s level of supply. Against the national average of 15 per cent rise in demand, the State was witnessing a “surge in demand,” which was of the order of 30 to 35 per cent. The State’s demand was 4.2 lakh kilo litres a month, of which bulk consumers accounted for 25 per cent, with 75 per cent being met through retail outlets.

Mr. Tripathy acknowledged that information technology companies had to use diesel for operating captive power plants to meet their power requirements and this was one of the causes of shortage. As for the current spell of diesel shortage, he attributed it to problems in transportation in the wake of a general strike on Wednesday.

[An official in the Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection department said that within the State, the districts of Chennai, Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur witnessed 35 per cent increase in the sale of diesel in the last two months. The oil companies were able to meet up to 20-25 per cent in excess of the normal level of demand.

The official said the IT firms were among the bulk consumers who had an arrangement of direct purchase from the oil companies. Also, they were resorting to the purchase of diesel from the retail outlets.]

The oil companies had made a proposal to the IT firms that they would procure the fuel at the rate in the global market if they received a regular indent from the IT sector, the Chief Secretary said.

As for restricting diesel sale to IT companies, the Chief Secretary said the State government was not a regulator. The oil companies themselves had an internal monitoring mechanism. There was no legal ban on bulk sale or sale in barrels. No licence was required [under the Explosives Act] for purchasing and storing up to 2,500 litres of diesel at a time.

Asked whether the surge in demand was unanticipated, Mr. Tripathy said growth was welcome. It provided challenges. “We are trying to meet them,” he quipped, adding that the State government had written to the Centre for increasing the quantity of diesel given to the State.

To a question whether the problem of diesel shortage was unique to the State, the official in the Civil Supplies and Consumer Protection department replied in the negative, saying similar problems were being faced by Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka, where acute power shortage prevailed.

However, what was observed in and around Chennai was that operators of lorries coming from Andhra Pradesh filled their vehicle tanks at retail outlets in Tiruvallur district because the price of diesel per litre was 60 paise less in Tamil Nadu.

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