Fraud in fuel trade

Visakhapatnam: Consumers who fill fuel in their vehicles from  petrol pumps in the district should be more watchful, as many of the petrol pumps reportedly manipulate the quantity of fuel. Not only in rural areas, but in Vizag city too petrol pumps are fleecing vehicle owners with reduced quantity of fuel.

Weights and measurements department  which conducted a 100-day drive that concluded on Tuesday, found various deviations in measuring fuel. There are around 250 fuelling stations across the district.

The legal metrology officials  raided nearly 200 selected  pumps to check for quality and quantity. Interestingly, some  traders were still using tampered metres  to cheat customers.

A district inspector of legal metrology department said some fuel stations were using pipes having excessive length by which they can deceive consumers  without manipulating the  metres as a large quantity of fuel remains in it.

As the metre reads the quantity dispensed in the tube it can save a considerable quantity of fuel every day. Gullible customers go by the meter reading since workers normally guide them to observe it.

As a result of the manipulation,  vehicle owners are actually getting around 900-930 ml per litre, which was observed by the officials at majority filling stations across the district.

The irregularity has been rampant in rural areas where checks are infrequent. Operators  of  heavy vehicles who consume huge quantity of  fuel were primary victims of the  fraudulent process.

Officials also conducted inspections at some fuel stations in the city found similar practice being followed. Cases were registered against an oil company and others in March this year and a tampered unit was also seized.

Petrol pumps must  display samples of quantity for awareness of the consumer.

The rampant exploitation has also been occurring due to the lack of vigil  on the part of   consumers.