With Diwali round the corner, there is great demand for edible oil. However, stocks are not expected to last for more than two or three days, and the traders' decision is likely to push up prices of edible oil in the city.

Addressing newsmen here on Wednesday, Laxminarayan Sharma, secretary, Oil Merchants Association, said the NMC was charging four paise octroi per kg of edible oil for the last 30 years.

Traders were paying Rs 400 as octroi per tanker and the equivalent amount on a truckload of oil tins to the NMC. But recently, the NMC raised octroi by five per cent on edible oil packs without notice, Sharma said.

The city receives about 10 truckloads (one lakh kg) of edible oil from other parts of the country everyday. Of this, about 50,000 kg oil is in packs while the rest is in loose form. The packagingof loose oil takes place outside octroi posts.

Sharma said because of the octroi hike, traders will now have to pay Rs 28,000 on a truckload (10 tonnes) of oil and Rs 400 per tanker. There is a tremendous difference between levying octroi on loose oil and oils in tins, he said.

Traders decided to ban edible oil sales and not bring in oil from outside, at an emergency meeting of The Oil Merchants Association. A delegation of oil traders also met Mayor Devendra Fadnavis, Municipal Commissioner Shivajirao Deshmukh and member of the Tax Recovery Cell Krishna Khopde and demanded the immediate withdrawal of the NMC decision. Till the time of going to press, a meeting of NMC officials was in progress to discuss the issue.