Cooking gas distributors with small customer bases, including the gramin vithraks, say they are struggling with meagre incomes. They have urged the State-run oil marketing companies (OMCs) to ensure that they be given higher commission or more customers so that they can survive in the business.
A gramin vithrak, meaning rural distributor, said that since they served customers in rural areas, on many days they were unable to deliver more than 70-80 cylinders. “In the cities, due to proximity of customer homes, distributors deliver up to 800 bottles a day. In the villages we have to travel much more to reach customers, and homes in hilly regions are far apart and remote. We call up customers a day ahead to find out if they have money to buy the cylinder and if they would be available at home and then deliver the next day. But we are paid the same amount as commission,” he said on condition of anonymity.
Another distributor said that around 40% of his customers rarely made bookings. “With the prices being very high, nearly 50% of our customers are now booking only around six cylinders per year. Some even book only two refills a year. We go to the homes of such people, help them book bottles and then deliver the gas. Otherwise, we won’t get any bookings,” he said.
Gramin vikthrak and recently appointed distributors are still awaiting customer transfers from distributors who have large customer bases of around 30,000. The situation among gramin vikthraks is so pathetic that some have a few hundred customers only. “We need at least 10 loads of bottles a month to survive. But we are unable to get that,” said a distributor in a rural area.
Though the exercise to transfer customers began at least five years ago, that did not happen as a few distributors refused to part with their connections and went to court. Oil industry sources explained that they were awaiting orders in the case.
