Oil cos worried over tampering in 3rd gen dispensers

LUCKNOW The tampering with the fuel dispensing system at filling stations has shocked not only consumers but officials of oil companies too. They have promised to take strict action against the dealers who have cheated the consumers.

Talking to the media on Friday, executive director, Indian Oil Corporation Avinash Varma and state head of Bharat Petroleum Raman Mallick said that they had already started raids on petrol pumps to ensure that no more chips were installed in dispensers.

An internal inquiry had also started and dealership of the dealers found guilty would be terminated.

“We don’t want to point fingers as we are waiting for the final report from the Special Task Force. However, the sales officers will have to explain why the stock register had errors, why there were no proper entries of oil sold and why the stock inside the petrol pump was more than the sale shown. They will also have to explain why they gave a clean chit to the petrol pumps without a thorough checking,” said Avinash Varma.

He said the officials were taken aback as the third generation dispensing system was considered to be tamper proof. The company invested a huge amount to ensure this.

“We have invited officials of companies providing dispensers to see how it was done and how the chips were fitted inside despite the seal outside dispensers. This is worrisome,” he said.

In an attempt to check malpractices in dispensation of petrol at the filling stations, the oil companies came up with a new software called ‘No Print No Delivery System (NPND)’ in 2013 but now with this expose, it is proved that the system was not tamper proof for the fraudsters .

They were able to break the system and steal oil despite highly sophisticated dispensers.