PNGRB Annexure V: The Annual Safety Audit Every Petrol Pump Must Pass

PNGRB mandates a comprehensive annual safety audit at every petroleum retail outlet, conducted by a company-authorised person or empanelled agency, against the format prescribed in Schedule 1, Annexure V of the T4S Regulations. The audit runs through seven sections covering statutory licences, tanks, pumps, building services, electrical, and tank lorry operations, with around 50 line items in total. This article walks through every section, what auditors record under Observation and Recommendation, and how a Clappia PNGRB audit checklist app turns the audit into a structured digital exercise with traceable closure. For the wider checklist stack, see the parent PNGRB audit checklist guide.

Key Takeaways

• Annexure V is the annual safety audit format under Schedule 1 of PNGRB's T4S Regulations, conducted once a year by a company-authorised person or agency.
• The format has seven sections: Statutory Requirements, General, Tanks, Pumps, Building and other facilities, Electrical, and Tank Lorry.
• Every line item has three columns: Sl. No., Observation, and Recommendation. Auditors fill the last two.
• Common annual-trigger checks include CCOE licence validity, W&M verification last date, DCP fire extinguisher last charging date, and emergency telephone numbers display.
• The annual audit overlaps with the weekly Annexure III checks and the three-yearly Annexure IV electrical audit. Weekly observations should pre-populate the annual audit so auditors come prepared.
• A digital version captures every observation with date stamps, photos of licences and equipment, and routes Recommendations to the dealer or contractor for closure before the next annual cycle.

What is PNGRB Annexure V?

Annexure V, titled "Safety Audit Checklist", sits inside Schedule 1 of the PNGRB Technical Standards and Specifications including Safety Standards (T4S) Regulations, which govern every retail outlet dispensing MS, HSD, Auto LPG, CNG, LNG, and LCNG in India.

The audit is organised into seven sections. Section 1: Statutory Requirements covers CCOE licence, drawing, safety messages, explosives rules, fire extinguishers, fire buckets, and W&M verification. Section 2: General covers housekeeping. Section 3: Tanks covers dip rod, fill pipe, vent pipe, manhole chamber, curb walls, lorry discharge, and bonding. Section 4: Pumps covers dispenser condition, motor earthing, loose wiring, flameproof boxes, and sand below pedestal. Section 5: Building and other facilities covers generator room storage and ventilation. Section 6: Electrical covers the full electrical scope from wiring to insulation and the shock treatment chart. Section 7: Tank Lorry covers the lorry-side checks during decantation.

Each line item has three columns: Sl. No., Observation (what the auditor saw), and Recommendation (what should be done). The Recommendation column is the corrective action list for the next year.

Why does the annual safety audit matter?

A year is a long window. The weekly Annexure III check catches obvious housekeeping and the things a DSM can spot. The three-yearly Annexure IV electrical audit catches measured electrical issues. Annexure V is the only routine that runs through the full statutory paperwork, the tank-side fittings, the generator room contents, and the tank lorry decantation practice in one sweep, every year.

What drifts in 12 months. The CCOE licence renewal date slips through the cracks if no calendar is watching it. The W&M last-verification date crosses one year and the dispenser is technically out of legal compliance for sale. A flameproof box on a dispenser loses a bolt during a maintenance call and never gets closed properly. Sand under a dispenser pedestal mixes with seepage and turns into a fire risk. A new generator room gets stacked with cardboard cartons because nobody told the staff it was a no-flammables zone. None of these get flagged by the weekly check.

The annual audit is the safety net.

What are the seven sections in PNGRB Annexure V?

The full structure, organised by section, with what auditors record.

Who can conduct the PNGRB Annexure V audit?

The regulation specifies a company-authorised person or agency. In practice, oil marketing companies (IOCL, BPCL, HPCL, Reliance, Nayara, Shell) empanel a pool of qualified safety auditors and rotate them across territories so the same auditor is not visiting the same outlet year on year. The auditor must have the technical competence to read CCOE drawings, interpret electrical readings, evaluate flameproof equipment, and run the tank lorry decantation observation.

A dealer's electrician cannot run this. A DSM cannot run this. The auditor is typically a qualified mechanical or electrical engineer with hazardous area certification and audit training.

What fields does a digital Annexure V app need?

Identity and context fields: outlet code, address, dealer name, marketing company (pulled from the master list), auditor name with employee ID and agency name, audit date with start and end time, GPS coordinates of submission, date of previous Annexure V audit (for the annual cadence check), reference number of the CCOE licence on file, reference number of the approved CCOE drawing.

Per-item Observation and Recommendation fields: free-text Observation field for each of approximately 50 sub-items, free-text Recommendation field for each (mandatory if observation is non-conforming), numeric fields for insulation resistance per feeder in mega ohms, neutral-to-earth voltage in volts, count of fire extinguishers, count of fire buckets. Conditional photo upload that becomes mandatory when a Recommendation is filled.

Validity-tracking fields: CCOE licence expiry date, next CCOE licence renewal trigger date, W&M last verification date, DCP fire extinguisher last charging date per extinguisher (linked to QR-tagged extinguisher), next charging due date, training records date for shock treatment.

Evidence and sign-off fields: photos of the CCOE licence on display, photos of the approved CCOE drawing alongside current installation for comparison, photos of every dispenser flameproof box, photos of the generator room interior, photos of the electrical panel interiors and panel doors with braided earth, auditor digital signature, dealer counter-signature.

Computed and workflow fields: total non-conformities per section and overall, severity tag (Critical / Major / Minor) per non-conformity, sequential audit ID, next due date for the annual cycle.

Clappia features that map directly to Annexure V

What does the workflow look like after submission?

The Recommendation column is the corrective action list for the next 12 months. Without a system to chase closure, the same Recommendations show up again at the next audit.

Zero non-conformities: the auto-generated PDF in the Annexure V format goes to the dealer, area manager, and HSE lead, and the next Annexure V due date auto-sets for 12 months out. Minor non-conformity (housekeeping in generator room, missing label, dustbin overflow): a WhatsApp message goes to the dealer with the action item and a 14-day closure target. Major non-conformity (CCOE drawing does not match reality, W&M overdue, vent cap wire gauge clogged or missing): an approval workflow routes the corrective action plan to the regional engineer, with restrictions noted for the affected facility. Critical non-conformity (CCOE licence expired, fire extinguishers unfit, electrical panel doors not earthed): immediate WhatsApp call-out to the area manager and HSE lead, with the option to shut down the affected facility until certified safe.

Every closure produces a closure photo, a closure date, and a closure signature, against a target date set at the time of audit.

A real-world use case

A network HSE compliance lead at an oil marketing company runs the Annexure V annual audit cycle across 240 retail outlets in two states. Before going digital, the empanelled auditors filled paper reports per outlet. About 25 percent of Recommendations were still open when the next annual cycle started, because the closure tracking sat in three different inboxes between the auditor, the dealer, and the area office.

After moving to the Clappia template, the auditor fills the digital Annexure V on-site from a tablet, captures photos of every CCOE licence, drawing, dispenser flameproof box, and electrical panel, and the submission auto-generates the regulatory-format PDF. The 50+ Recommendations become 50+ corrective action tasks, each with an owner and a deadline. The HSE lead sees a live dashboard showing audits due in the next 90 days, audits completed, open Recommendations per outlet, and the network-wide pattern across sections. In the second cycle, the pattern of repeat findings dropped by 70 percent because every Recommendation from the first cycle had a tracked closure date.

Where Annexure V fits in the rest of the PNGRB stack

The annual safety audit is the broadest annual check, sitting between the weekly Annexure III and the three-yearly Annexure IV. Use it alongside the PNGRB Annexure III weekly inspection checklist, whose 12 months of weekly observations should pre-populate the Annexure V draft; the PNGRB Annexure IV electrical audit checklist, whose readings inform Section 6 of the annual audit; the PNGRB Annexure VI(a) operator work permit for any non-routine work, the PNGRB Annexure VI(b) hot work permit, and the PNGRB Annexure VII tank-truck decantation checklist, which Section 7 of the annual audit reviews. The parent PNGRB checklist guide explains how every annexure ties together.

FAQs

How often is the PNGRB annual safety audit conducted?

Once a year, by a company-authorised person or agency, per Schedule 1 of the T4S Regulations. Some oil marketing companies run a half-yearly review on top of the annual audit, but the regulatory minimum is annual.

Who conducts the annual safety audit at a petrol pump?

A company-authorised person or empanelled agency. In practice, oil marketing companies maintain a pool of qualified safety auditors, typically mechanical or electrical engineers with hazardous area certification, and rotate them across territories.

Is W&M verification part of the PNGRB safety audit?

Yes. Item 1.7 of Annexure V requires the auditor to record the last date of Weights and Measures verification. The W&M stamp on the dispenser must be within validity (typically annual). An overdue W&M is a Recommendation that must be closed by re-verification before the next audit.

What happens if the CCOE drawing does not match the existing facilities?

Item 1.2 of Annexure V checks this explicitly. A mismatch is a Major non-conformity, and the corrective action is to either revise the drawing through PESO (with a new CCOE approval) or restore the facility to match the approved drawing. Operating with a mismatched drawing is a regulatory breach.

How is the annual audit linked to weekly inspections?

The 52 weekly Annexure III submissions across the year build the baseline. A digital setup pre-populates the annual Annexure V draft with any recurring non-conformities flagged during the year, so the auditor focuses on what hasn't been resolved rather than rediscovering known issues.

Can the same auditor run multiple outlets in the same day?

Yes, and most empanelled auditors cover three to five outlets a day in a territory. A digital audit shortens each visit by roughly 30 to 40 percent because most fields auto-fill from QR scans and the previous year's record, and the report writes itself on submission.

Ready to take Annexure V off paper?

The annual safety audit is the most paperwork-heavy routine in the PNGRB stack. Statutory licences, drawings, fire equipment dates, W&M stamps, tank fittings, pump condition, electrical readings, and tank lorry observations all in one 50+ item sweep. Paper makes it a transcription exercise. A digital one makes it a verification exercise, with every Recommendation already tracking its own closure deadline.

Ready to run Annexure V with traceable closure across every outlet? Sign up for free and build your annual safety audit app on Clappia in under 10 minutes. No credit card, no contracts, no risk, just results.