Adulterated fuel supply
Thursday, 21 June 2007
THE very unimaginable was detected only recently at the fuel oil depot of the Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC) at Fatullah, Narayanganj. One 9,000 litre tank lorry was found to have only water as its whole cargo instead of diesel. After this detection, several other filled-up lorries were seen to be similarly filled up with only water. The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) later investigated the incident and took actions against the depot manager and other employees. The RAB search also led to the finding of a reserve tank in the depot with a capacity to hold over 1.3 million litres completely filled with water. The electronic media gave broad coverage to the incident and so also did sections of the print media.
This was not the first time that news about fuel adulteration came to public attention. But this has been the largest such revelation of this very serious crime. As it is, frequently consumers of fuel oil complain about the impurity of the diesel, octane, petrol and kerosene. Owners of motorised vehicles often have to send their transports to repairing garages where engine dysfunctions are explained as the result of use of adulterated fuel. It was not estimated to what extent economic losses are borne at the private and national level from such fuel adulteration but the same would surely be high. Engines of vehicles eroding or their operational life getting shortened from repeated use of such impure fuel, expenditures on repairs and losses on account of poor functioning of the vehicles or their idle conditions while undergoing repairs, all of these add up to the vast amounts of losses. This is very regrettable for a country like Bangladesh that should be cutting any form losses to the economy as far as possible.
Not only this big incident at the Fatullah depot, consumers of fuel are regularly not getting their value for money in many distributing centres as they are often not supplied the full quantity of the fuels they buy. Meter tampering and other sleight of hand operations ensure that as the tanks of the transports are filled, some quantities are actually not put into the tanks but retained. The retained oil is later sold in the black market by the corrupt section of the filling station operators. In the black market, the stolen oil is further adulterated for profits -- for example mixing kerosene with diesel or petrol with octane and then supplying the same to consumers that lead to worse damages for engines of not only vehicles but also of irrigation pumps and other equipment which use such seriously adulterated fuel oils. Thus, the chain of crimes associated with the distribution of fuel oils is indeed a long and varying one with negative repercussions throughout the economy. Thus, it is imperative to extensively and thoroughly investigate these crimes, specially at their sources, and put an end to them at the fastest.
The drive against adulteration of consumer goods is being conducted by the caretaker government. This drive needs to be also focused on adulteration of fuel oil which is posing as a more and more dangerous issue as was proved by the Fatullah incident. It is very shocking that crimes such as the one detected at the Fatullah depot can occur or be dared when the country remains under the emergency. The sternest application of the law would be justified under these conditions.
This was not the first time that news about fuel adulteration came to public attention. But this has been the largest such revelation of this very serious crime. As it is, frequently consumers of fuel oil complain about the impurity of the diesel, octane, petrol and kerosene. Owners of motorised vehicles often have to send their transports to repairing garages where engine dysfunctions are explained as the result of use of adulterated fuel. It was not estimated to what extent economic losses are borne at the private and national level from such fuel adulteration but the same would surely be high. Engines of vehicles eroding or their operational life getting shortened from repeated use of such impure fuel, expenditures on repairs and losses on account of poor functioning of the vehicles or their idle conditions while undergoing repairs, all of these add up to the vast amounts of losses. This is very regrettable for a country like Bangladesh that should be cutting any form losses to the economy as far as possible.
Not only this big incident at the Fatullah depot, consumers of fuel are regularly not getting their value for money in many distributing centres as they are often not supplied the full quantity of the fuels they buy. Meter tampering and other sleight of hand operations ensure that as the tanks of the transports are filled, some quantities are actually not put into the tanks but retained. The retained oil is later sold in the black market by the corrupt section of the filling station operators. In the black market, the stolen oil is further adulterated for profits -- for example mixing kerosene with diesel or petrol with octane and then supplying the same to consumers that lead to worse damages for engines of not only vehicles but also of irrigation pumps and other equipment which use such seriously adulterated fuel oils. Thus, the chain of crimes associated with the distribution of fuel oils is indeed a long and varying one with negative repercussions throughout the economy. Thus, it is imperative to extensively and thoroughly investigate these crimes, specially at their sources, and put an end to them at the fastest.
The drive against adulteration of consumer goods is being conducted by the caretaker government. This drive needs to be also focused on adulteration of fuel oil which is posing as a more and more dangerous issue as was proved by the Fatullah incident. It is very shocking that crimes such as the one detected at the Fatullah depot can occur or be dared when the country remains under the emergency. The sternest application of the law would be justified under these conditions.