The three public-sector oil marketing companies — Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Hindustan Petroleum Corporation (HPCL) and Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL) — have approached the petroleum ministry to seek exemption from the election commission for going ahead with the allotment of at least 31,800 petrol pumps, at a time when the model code of conduct is already in place.
Though bids were invited for 78,493 locations, only 31,800 places were finalised prior to the election notification. Ahead of the announcement by the poll panel on March 11, the companies had already initiated the process by issuing letters of intent (LoIs) to successful bidders for 2,579 locations on February 21. The bidding process had kicked off in November last year and bids were opened in January.
