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Loose change makes petrol pumps richer by Rs 300 cr per year
Published on Thu, Sep 13, 2007 at 22:37 in Business section
Tags: Money, Petrol Pums , Bangalore
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Bangalore: If you petrol bill adds up to Rs 1000 and 90 paise what do you do? Most of the time we drive off without the 10 paise. There are others like you. So guess how much people leave behind? Rs 300 crore every year.
When you queue up at a fuel station, pay attention to that 15 to 30 paise change that's not returned to you. It might not be a big deal, but an NGO, Panchgavya, in Bangalore estimates consumers lose about Rs 300 crore a year from short-changing at petrol stations.
It has filed public interest litigation in the Karnataka High Court asking the state to account for these funds.
Panchagavya Trust founder member Arun Kumar said, “What prompted us to file the PIL was the amount involved is huge, which is going unaccounted even though we are paying it. It is not the fault of anyone, it is a failure on the part of the system.”
Petrol sales in Bangalore alone amount to eight lakh litres a day. At Rs 50 and 62 paise a litre, that's over Rs 4 crore, and it's no small change.
Taking price fluctuations across India into account, on average, 18 paise per litre is not returned to the consumer.
While some believe the issue can be deal with by using cards to pay for fuel, cashless transactions are still a long way from India's fuel stations.
It's true that a little change does not matter too much. Petrol pumps normally distribute the extra money among their staff.
But Rs 300 crore is a lot of money and that's only on petrol sales. If other fuels are taken into account the figure could well surpass Rs 500 crore - that's big bucks from small change.
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We dont have to pay by card, to save the loose change. We can ask them to fill the petrol/diesel
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can someone give a break up how much in an average a petrol bunk will profit. That is important.
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Good question raised but unless and until solutions are provided/suggested/proposed, this subject will lay in books only.
In my personal capacity,
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I for one definitely give a serious thought on this and make efforts to try to get the change. This
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The solution is simple; do not ask for supply of 2, 2.5, 3 litres of petrol etc; simply ask for
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