Half-day strike at petrol pumps

The Bangladesh Petrol Pump and Tank Lorry Owners Unity Council is enforcing a half-day strike today, Sunday, across the country to press home a 10-point demand.

The strike began at 6:00 am and will continue until 2:00 pm. At a press conference on 11 May, the council announced that if their demands were not met by 24 May, they would go for a work-abstention programme on 25 May.

The unity council is a joint platform by the Bangladesh Petrol Pump Owners Association and the Bangladesh Tank Lorry Owners Association.

Around 9:30 am, Mizanur Rahman, joint convener of the council, told Prothom Alo that the strike began as scheduled. The Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) has called a meeting at 10:00 am, and the council will decide on its next course of action after observing the meeting outcomes.

As per the previous announcement, the extraction, transportation, and marketing of fuel oil remained suspended across the country. However, the supply of jet fuel for Hajj and international flights remained uninterrupted.

Fuel supply to ambulances and fire service vehicles is out of the strike’s purview, while the police vehicles are allowed to collect fuel from petrol pumps under fuel supply agreements.

The 10-point demand includes raising the sales commission on fuel to a minimum of 7 per cent, keeping the roads and highways department's lease fees at previous rates, considering the renewal of pump-connection road leases upon submission of the pay order and application, limiting BSTI’s authority to stamping and measurement verification of fuel dispensing units only, scrapping fees and registration for underground tank calibration and dip rod testing, removing the requirement to obtain environmental, factory, and fire service licenses, banning illegal fuel vending machines set up indoors or in open spaces, stopping direct oil sales by marketing companies without dealership, and simplifying the process for issuing and renewing tank lorry driver licenses.