17 petrol pumps fined for short selling

​Hyderabad: Seventeen petrol pumps were penalised for short selling. So far, the Department of Legal Metrology has caught 142 violators in the last nine months and penalised 17 petrol filling stations. Four petrol pumps out of the 17 are from the city. In a recent survey covering petroleum and fertiliser sector, the department cracked the whip and penalised several firms.

Assistant Controller in Legal Metrology Department Siddharth Kumar said, “Last year the number of violators in petrol pumps and fertilisers trade survey were nearly 200 throughout the State, but this year the number of cases has come down due to implementation of strict rules to pay the penalty in stipulated time of a fortnight, otherwise the licence would be ceased and to Rs 1 lakh of penalty should be paid at court.”

Mostly, the defaulters who gave a negative nod to pay the penalty ended up in court paying Rs 1 lakh until which the licence was ceased.

According to Legal Metrology Act 2009, short delivering is an offence in which the amount of fuel falls short to its actual measure, for which the violators will be penalised up to Rs 50,000 and recalibration is an offence where violator would pay Rs 25,000 due to the deviated equipments, which fail to produce actual outcome.

In the recent trade survey done by the department, Somreddy Petro Products at Musheerabad and GVR Filling Station at Malkajgiri were spotted as defaulters in short delivering the fuel to the consumers.