Gujarat Reliance Petrol Pump Dealers' Association

RIL petrol pump dealers threaten stir in Gujarat

The Gujarat Reliance Petrol Pump Dealers' Association has demanded
that the company refund the investments made by the dealers for
opening retail outlets and threatened to launch an agitation if their
demands are not conceded soon."We have been continuously facing
financial losses ever since we made investments nearly four years ago
in opening these outlets. We can no longer do so. Two months back,
when we went on a hunger strike, Mr Parimal Nathwani, Group President,
RIL, had assured us to look into our demands and concerns. If our
demands are not addressed soon, we would agitate and immolate
ourselves in front of RIL offices," Mr Varun Patel, a member of the
association, told Business Line on phone. He said if RIL still wanted
to run the petrol pumps, it should pay market rent to landowners who
did not want to run the outlets themselves any longer.

The Association's meeting, held at Ambaji yesterday, also passed a
resolution demanding, among other things, termination of land lease
and dealership agreements and asked the company to buy back the
equipment and machinery at the outlets on current market prices.About
70 dealers participated in the meeting of the association, headed by
Mr Sunil Golwala.Mr Patel said that out of nearly 1,300 retail outlets
of RIL, some 290 were in Gujarat alone.

They included 126 outlets wherein the landowners themselves invested
money to set up the pumps. They are in the category of the 'Dealer
Owner-Dealer Operated' or DODO, the ones who suffered maximum
financial losses.Besides, there were two other business models — the
'Company Operated-Dealer Owned' (CODO) and the 'Company Owned-Company
Operated' (COCO).There was no reaction available immediately from RIL.
RIL's as also Essar Oil Ltd's retail outlets had been shut down about
two years ago across India as the price difference between their
products and those supplied by government-owned companies had made
them economically unviable.Both the companies had opened nearly 1,400
outlets each across the country. Recently, they had announced to
revive them, but few have so far been reopened.
…………by……Virendra Pandit……………….in the HINDU BUSINESS LINE
newspaper……Ahmedabad, April 12