PMO disagrees with Moily’s petrol curfew

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New Delhi: The Prime Minister’s Office on Monday rejected the proposal of Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily to shut petrol pumps in the night to taper fuel demand as the ministry looks at ways to cut the massive oil import bill.
According to reports, the PMO said this is not a good move and will send wrong signals to the market. It is also not possible to implement the proposal, the PMO said.
The oil companies too have expressed their reservations on the proposal.  
"There are various options and ideas that have been floated. Shutting petrol pumps during night is one of them. But we have not decided. It is just a proposal," Moily told PTI from Bangalore.
Stung by criticism from the BJP, Moily said the Opposition could come up with better ideas, if they had any.
His ministry plans to launch a massive fuel conservation drive from September 16 to cut fuel demand by 3 per cent and save an estimated Rs 16,000 crore or USD 2.5 billion in forex outgo. The oil import bill is being trimmed to bring down current account deficit.
"Shutting petrol pump is an idea that has come to us. We have not adopted it. It is not my view," Moily said.
Reacting sharply, BJP spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain said, "What is petrol pump.. Government will close the country... Won't the people fill their car fuel tanks in the morning. This is a strange move by Moily".
If the Manmohan Singh government has run out of ideas to tackle the economic mess, it can take suggestions from the BJP, he said.
Oil Secretary Vivek Rae said there was no plan before the ministry to order petrol pumps in cities to remain shut from 8 pm to 8 am to curb demand for petrol and diesel.
The Minister said Petroleum Conservation and Research Association (PCRA) under his ministry will from September 16 launch a 6 week campaign to promote conservation of petrol, diesel and LPG.
Moily had also written a detailed note to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on shaving off upto USD 20 billion out of the USD 144.293 billion oil import bill of 2012-13.
The August 30 note does not talk of shutting petrol pumps in the night but details out conservation campaign as well as raising oil imports from Iran to cut import bill. Moily said we are planning many austerity measures and urged people to save fuel.