Fuel sales have dropped nearly a quarter in Delhi in the week following the launch of the odd even road rationing policy that allows private vehicles to ply on city roads only on alternate days as per the last digit in their registration numbers, according to petrol pump owners.

Nitin Goyal, a petrol pump owner, said the volume at his station at Karkardooma in East Delhi has fallen nearly 25% since the odd-even formula was rolled out on January 1. Four wheelers account for about 40% of his sales and bikes for the balance. “But pumps dependent more on cars have seen a steeper fall,” said Goyal. The odd-even rule doesn’t restrict bikes.

Ajay Bansal, the chief of All India Petroleum Dealers Association (AIPDA) said:
“Delhi has about 400 filling stations, with each selling 470,000 litres of petrol on average every month. This can fall to 300,000 litres this month if sales were to slide at this pace. If the odd-even formula were to continue for long, we will have to significantly cut our expenses to match the lower volumes we sell these days.”

The Delhi government is testing the odd-even formula only till January 15 and so it is unlikely that the monthly volume will drop dramatically.

But any loss in business for petrol pump owners also means a loss for state-run fuel retailing corporations such as Indian Oil, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum as well as the government which has a big stake in fuel sales in the form of duties.