With the difference in fuel prices in the open market now bare minimum with the subsidy provided by the Indian Oil Corporation, the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) has once again decided to resort to the IOC for its requirement of diesel.
For the past one year, the KSRTC had been depending on private pumps and Civil Supplies outlets across the state ever since the Supreme Court prohibited subsidised fuel from IOC.

Earlier, the difference of fuel in the open market and the subsidy provided by the IOC stood at `12.

ksrtc diesel pump

It was at that time, the Supreme Court ruled that the KSRTC need not purchase diesel on subsidised rate as the losses caused to the Corporation was due to its mismanagement.Currently, with the price of fuel in the open market and the subsidised rate coming down to a bare minimum of `1.5, the KSRTC has decided to hold talks with the IOC and meet the requirement of fuel.

With the talks now in progress, the KSRTC has started purchasing diesel from the IOC outlets in Karnataka for the northern parts of the state including Kannur, Kozhikode and Payyannur. In the coming months, it is learnt that the KSRTC will depend more on IOC outlets for fuel in the central and southern parts of the state.

By September, the price is expected to further fluctuate by another 50 paise, bringing down the difference between the open market and subsidy to `1. Meanwhile, the KSRTC has several fuel tankers to transport diesel from IOC to different parts of Kerala. As many of them are lying idle in Ernakulam depot it is drawing flak from various sources. However, , the KSRTC had been facing difficulty as the Civil Supplies department had stopped supplying diesel to it owing to payment delays.

Source: New Indian Express

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