Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas clarifies on Adulteration of Fuel in the Country

PIB News Update: Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan has informed that Public Sector Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) have informed that action is taken as per Marketing Discipline Guidelines (MDG) and Dealership agreement against retail outlet dealers where cases of adulteration are established as per the provisions of Marketing Discipline Guidelines and Dealership Agreement subsisting between Retail Outlet (RO) dealer and OMC. The Central Government has also issued the Motor Spirit and High Speed Diesel (Regulation of Supply, Distribution and Prevention of Malpractices) Order, 2005 under Essential Commodities Act, 1955 which provides for punitive action against malpractices such as adulteration of petroleum products. Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) have a system of monitoring and surveillance at the Retail Outlets.  Important initiatives taken by OMCs in this regard include:-

• Filter Paper, Calibrated Density Equipment (Hydrometer/Thermometer) & 5 Liter Calibrated Measure are made available at the Retail Outlets for checking quality & quantity of MS/HSD.
• Regular / Surprise inspections are carried out at Retail Outlets by OMC Field Officers/ Senior Officers/Mobile labs throughout the country.
• A separate Quality Assurance Cell (QAC) has been created for carrying out inspections.
• Samples are drawn from petrol pumps at random and sent for testing to authorized laboratories.
• Tankers are being sealed before leaving company premises to protect against pilferage/adulteration en-route.
• GPS have been installed to monitor movement of Tank Trucks carrying MS / HSD.
• Third Party Audit of Retail Outlet is being done by OMCs for effective monitoring and benchmarking.
• Automation of Retail Outlets has been undertaken by OMCs which enable the real-time capture of sales transaction and monitoring of tank stocks and receipts.

The State/UT wise details of the complaints received and action taken thereon during last three years and current year (April- September, 2019) are as under.

The details of the No. of complaints received on adulteration fuel in the country and action taken in established cases of adulteration during last 3 yrs and April-September, 2019 are as under :