Telangana: PACS plans to convert fuel stations into commercial ones

Centre refusal to restore the subsidies that were extended to bulk consumers including PACS forced them to close their filling stations

Karimnagar: Primary Agricultural Cooperatives Societies (PACS) in the district are planning to convert their petrol bunks into commercial filling stations with the Centre refusing to restore the subsidies that were extended to bulk consumers including PACS till last year.

PACS authorities have made a representation to the Union Ministry of Cooperation and other officials in the Centre on this, also informing them that they were ready to modernize their fuel stations on par with commercial filling stations by spending Rs 5 to Rs 10 lakh on each one.

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The Centre, in a hard hitting move last year, had scrapped all subsidies to bulk consumers like PACS, the TSRTC and the Singareni Collieries Company Ltd last year citing scarcity of petroleum products in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine war.

Unable to spend an additional Rs 20 to Rs 30 per litre to purchase fuel from petroleum companies, the PACS had closed their filling stations in January 2022. About 65 filling stations were operated by PACS in Karimnagar, Medak, Hyderabad and other districts. Karimnagar alone had 38 PACS filling stations.

As a result, farmers and members of PACS were forced to commute 10 to 20 kilometres from their villages and shell out huge amounts to buy diesel and petrol.

Speaking to Telangana Today, National Federation of State Cooperative Banks (NAFSCOB) chairman Konduru Ravinder Rao said he had submitted a representation to the Union Cooperation Minister Amit Shah requesting him to take steps to convert bulk consumer filling stations into commercial stations. He said Shah had responded positively to the request.