KATHMANDU, Nov 23: While consumers have been falling prey to the black market in petroleum products along with the fuel crisis resulting from the Indian blockade, Nepal Police have uncovered an alarming trend of cheating at petrol pumps through meter tampering.
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Following complaints from consumers, police carried out surprise inspections at various fuel stations in Kathmandu Valley on Sunday and Monday, with the support of other stakeholders in government. During the raids initiated by Metropolitan Police Crime Division, Teku, the operators of 17 fuel stations in Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur were arrested and remanded in police custody for further investigations.
Preliminary investigations showed that about 11 of the fuel stations have devised cunning methods to tamper with the fuel-dispensing machines to increase the fuel delivery pulse in such a way that the money charged and the fuel pumped are shown to match accurately.
“The machines--both digital and manual--were found with specially modified devices installed inside,” said SSP Sarvendra Khanal, head of the Crime Division. The digital machines were found to be controlled by cards or chips installed inside and accessed by remote control, he said.
Five Indian mechanics from Motihari in Bihar, India were arrested by police, who inspected the fuel stations in their presence. The Indians told police that they do ‘pulsar fitting’ in the digital machines and ‘gear fitting’ in the manual ones.
The mechanics confessed to police that they can dupe consumers of 3 to 9 percent of the fuel dispensed when the machines are activated. “It was found that fuel stations in the Valley cheat 3 to 4 percent but this figure might be up to 8-9 percent outside,” Khanal said.
The arrested Indians are Aaub Aalam, Nashim Siddiqui, Hamdi Hussain, Saikh Istihaj and Mohammad Aawarav. Another Indian is yet to be arrested. They had charged Rs 30,000-35,000 per machine for the tampering.
“It’s a huge challenge for the authorities that regulate the fuel stations. But consumers are either ignorant of the cheating at the fuel outlets or hesitate to file any complaints,” he said.
Police have also prepared to bring many others involved in the manipulation of petrol supplies under the scanner.
“Consumers have been cheated repeatedly since many years and this is the right time to expose the masterminds involved,” said Bishnu Prasad Timilsina, secretary of the Forum for Protection of Consumer Rights-Nepal.
Petrol stations in Nepal have transactions of Rs 150 billion every year and they cheat the consumers of billions, Timilsina added.
Police officials also claimed that there was a huge racket behind the cheating at petrol pumps. They store less of the fuel in their pumps and sell a certain percent in the black market at an exorbitant rate. According to police, the racketeers don’t even bother to deliver a certain percent of the total fuel consignments to the petrol pumps.
The petrol stations involved are Cristal Fuel Supplier, Balaju, DM Petrol Pump, Satungal, Unique Petrol Pump, Balkumari, Bhaktapur Fuel Center, Jagati, Bangalamukhi Oil Store, Sanobharyang, Trishakti Oil Store, Sanepa, Gayatri Oil Store, Ekantakuna, Dibya Oil Store, Basundhara, Mahalaxmi Traders, Satdobato, Rajdhani Oil, Gopikrishna, Pujakothi Oil Stores, New Bus Park.
These petrol stations have now been sealed.
