Andhra Pradesh government all set curb fiddling at fuel outlets
A majority of fuel stations use self-destructive pulsars in nozzles to dispense fuel as they are tamper-proof
VIJAYAWADA: Following a recent finding of filching of nearly 30 ml fuel for every litre sold to the consumer by using manipulative software in Telangana state, the Andhra Pradesh government has decided to take up a special drive at fuel retail outlets to find out and curb such illegal practice shortly.
AP has 3,878 fuel retail outlets run by oil companies like IOCL, HPCL, BPCL, Reliance, Essar and others and about 20,000 dispensers. Gilbarco Veeder-Root is the major supplier of fuel dispensers.
Though the company-owned fuel retail outlets avoid fraudulent practice, private agencies which take such outlets on lease, resort to short delivery of fuel ranging from 10 ml to 30 ml per litre by tampering with the motherboard of fuel dispenser with integrated chips to manipulate the software programme.
Legal metrology sources say that Dubai-based masterminds fix the nozzle by using software in such a way that it can be operated by remote control. The owners of on-lease fuel stations fix the mechanism to one or two fuel dispensers at the bunk. They instruct the workers to direct vehicles to such fuel dispensers so that they can resort to short delivery of fuel.
Sources say that the legal metrology authorities are getting ready to catch such illegal practices. They say that it is mandatory to fix certain equipment to prevent short delivery of fuel.
A senior official from the legal metrology department said, “We are going to take up special drive on fuel stations to find out any fraudulent practice of short delivery of fuel very shortly. A majority of fuel stations use self-destructive pulsars in nozzles to dispense fuel as they are tamper-proof. Our task is to find those who fix non-destructive pulsars and make them replace them with self-destructive pulsars to ensure accurate dispensing of fuel as per display.”
Earlier, the legal metrology authorities carried out raids on fuel stations for short delivery of fuel with tampered mother boards of fuel dispensers and booked 17 cases in the state.
The authorities advised consumers to check for zero before delivery and be alert in case of double display models of fuel dispensers.