Swindling oil & gas providers on line

NEW DELHI: Are you facing problem in getting cooking gas? Is your petrol pump selling adulterated fuel? Now you
can take action against them by complaining to a central authority.

Your complaint would not only be registered but you will also be intimated about action taken against the culprit. The public sector oil companies, Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL), have put in place a public grievance redressal mechanism to address complaints pertaining to domestic LPG, petrol and diesel.

In recent times, there has been a lot of hue and cry over availability of LPG cylinders, with waiting list running in lakhs. For petrol and diesel too, complaints against retailers across the country have been rising.

In order to take care of such problems, the companies have separately provided toll-free numbers for complaint registration. Any complaint lodged would automatically go to the respective officer through intranet online system and the matter would be disposed of only when it is redressed, a petroleum ministry official said.

For complaints relating to IOC, the customers can dial toll-free number, 18002333555, from anywhere in the country, and for the complaints relating to BPCL, the toll-free number is 1800222725. In the case of HPCL, the company has provided two separate toll free numbers: 18002333777 for LPG and 18002333999 for petrol and diesel.

The ministry has also decided to launch an awareness campaign on the revamped mechanism for its effective implementation. The customer will be given a unique registration number for the complaint lodged, and those who wish to know about the status of the complaints can ring up the call centre on the same toll-free number.