ISLAMABAD: Three petroleum companies have been found to be cheating their customers in the capital by charging them more than the price fixed by the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra).

The practice came to light during an inspection of petrol pumps of the three companies conducted by a district administration team under the supervision of Assistant Commissioner Saddar, Saad bin Asad.

Officials of the district administration said the inspection was conducted after many complaints were received regarding measurement fraud and selling fuel at a higher price.

The petrol pumps were also violating section 144 and were selling fuel to motorcyclists who are not wearing helmets and selling fuel in bottles and cans.

AC Asad and his team inspected over a dozen pumps along and around Peshawar Road and nozzles in most of the pumps were found to be faulty so that customers get less than the fuel they pay for. The pumps were also found to be charging Rs0.05 or Rs0.1 more per litre, generating Rs5,000 to Rs7,000 per month from one unit.

AC Asad told Dawn that over a dozen nozzles in the pumps were sealed along with the units. The pumps were told to repair the nozzles and get verification certificates for them.

Fines worth Rs100,000 were also imposed on the pumps and were asked to fix their metres to the prices fixed by Ogra.

Five separate cases were registered against the pimps under section 19 of the Weights and Measurements Act, he said.

Published in Dawn, January 23rd, 2019