‘Nobody is allowed to put a cap on sales’: Oil Secretary Neeraj Mittal on fuel purchase restrictions

Petroleum Secretary Neeraj Mittal said on Thursday that no private fuel retailer is allowed to put a cap on petrol or diesel sales at its outlets. The government is preparing to direct retailers to stop limiting purchases.

"Nobody is allowed to put a cap on sales. They are doing it, and we will take it up. We will tell them it is not acceptable," Mittal said, as mentioned in a report in Business Standard. He added that similar instructions had been issued earlier and the government’s position had not changed.

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Private refiners Reliance Industries and Nayara Energy have restricted fuel sales at their retail outlets to limit losses from selling petrol and diesel below market rates. Jio-bp outlets have capped diesel purchases at 50 litres per customer per day, while limits at Nayara outlets range from 70 litres to 200 litres, according to the report.

The restrictions come as oil-marketing companies face losses on sales of petrol, diesel and liquefied petroleum gas cylinders amid the ongoing West Asia crisis.

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Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said the "phase of anxiety" was not over for India, while adding that Indian consumers had remained insulated from the extraordinary rise in energy prices.

Mittal said the crisis had also highlighted the need to increase the share of natural gas in India's energy mix, arguing that the country cannot depend on a single fuel.

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"We need to learn from the recent crisis. India has escaped unscathed in many ways from this crisis. We did not see prices go up, did not see shortages. We did not see any household complaining that their house was out of energy," he said.

The government, led by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board, has launched National PNG Drive 3.0, targeting five million new domestic piped natural gas connections. An online portal, MyPNG, was also launched to provide information and facilitate connections between consumers and city gas distribution companies.