Safety concerns: There are also huge safety concerns related to transporting and fuelling of vehicles in the residential and congested areas.
Adulteration: There are also concerns about adulteration of the fuel oil in absence of quality and accountability standards.
Loss of business: The traditional fuel station (brick and mortar petrol pumps) may face the fall in sales volume thus online sale will impact their profitability.
Way Forward
The online sale of fuel is another step in reforming the oil sector and improving the quality of service delivery. But at the same time it must also be ensured that adequate safety measures and accountability standards are put in place to overcome the current concerns about e-sale of diesel.
The government is planning to give electricity consumers the freedom to choose the supplier by enacting a new law. The proposal is similar to mobile number portability where consumers can switch to a telecom operator of their choice. Currently the power distribution utilities are responsible for operating and maintaining distribution system in their licensed areas.
The proposal is to separate electricity supply and network maintenance services and introduce multiple licensees for a single area by amending the Electricity Act, 2003.
The Electricity act, 2003 laid out a period of five years i.e. by 2008 when large users who consumed up to 1MW would get open access. But it did not lay out a time frame for providing this for smaller users like households.
