NOW, PETROL AND DIESEL AT YOUR DOORSTEP

Oil marketing companies such as Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum Corporation and Hindustan Petroleum Corporation will soon go the e-commerce way as the government plans home delivery of petrol and diesel.

Sources in the know said Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan presented the idea at a meeting of the consultative committee of members of Parliament in Srinagar on Friday.

The move is aimed at increasing digital transactions in the sector.

“This would increase the number of digital transactions and would become more comfortable for consumers. Besides, it would cut long queues at fuel stations as the same would be delivered at consumers’ doorsteps,” an industry source said.

According to the plan, consumers can book fuel online, which will be delivered directly to their houses by the oil marketing companies.

“A three-pronged strategy was followed - a rapid expansion of digital payments infrastructure at fuel stations, a massive awareness campaign as well as incentivising consumers,” he said.

At present, about 38,128 retail outlets in the country have point-of-sale machines and over 86 per cent have digital infrastructure. After demonetisation, oil marketing companies are giving a 0.75 per cent discount on cashless transactions, while over 72,000 ewallets have also been activated.

“This is one step ahead in our road map, as it may give consumers additional benefits of digital transactions. However, details of the rollout are yet to be finalised,” the source added.

Oil marketing companies have conducted about 35,000 consumer awareness campaigns to promote digital transactions since the old high-value notes seized to be a legal tender.

Pradhan indicated that daily cashless transactions have increased to ~400 crore per day from ~150 crore per day in November.

The ministry has also launched MoPNG e-Seva — a dedicated social media grievance redressal platform for oil- and gas-related complaints, besides Swachh Petrol Pump app where people can give their feedback on the status of toilets at fuel stations. This comes at a time a section of petrol pump owners were planning to shut down on all Sundays, starting May 14.

Commenting on this, Pradhan said the ministry did not approve or endorse the move to close down fuel stations on Sundays. Fuel conservation as a major campaign is being carried out by the Petroleum Conservation Research Association and oil marketing companies under the ministry’s guidance.