PESHAWAR, May 29: Various carriage companies with the connivance of the Pakistan State Oil officials at Taru Jabba depot are causing millions of rupees loses to the national exchequer in the head of transportation charges , sources told Dawn on Saturday.

The carriage companies started minting money since they were given permission to transport diesel from the PSO depot at Machhi near Sheikhupura to the PSO depot at Taru Jabba near Peshawar nine months ago, the sources said.

The PSO officials at Taru Jabba depot accept the invoices and issue bank draft for the transportation of diesel from Machhi and get their own share from the companies, the sources alleged.

The companies filled the oil tankers from the PSO Machhi depot and then emptied them at petrol pumps in Sheikhupura and Gujranwala districts. The carriers, subsequently claimed the transportation charges from the depot at Taru Jabba, the sources said.

The PSO has fixed Rs11,200 for the transportation of 15,000 litres diesel from Machhi to Taru Jabba and the amount is increased according to the quantity of the diesel.

On Friday noon, local office-bearers of the All Pakistan Oil Tankers Association overpowered a person who had got stamped transportation invoices of 229,000 litres of diesel from the PSO official, the sources said.

The person was overpowered by the office-bearers at PSO Taru Jabba depot and snatched the transportation invoices of 12 oil tankers from him which were stamped by the official concerned, the sources added.

There was no oil tanker, but according to the invoices 12 oil tankers were shown to have been emptied at the depot.

Later, the officials of the PSO issued duplicate invoices to the person and also issued drafts to get the transportation charges from a bank.

The invoices against which the PSO officials issued duplicate copies of diesel transportation are: 15,000 litres diesel on invoice Nos. 8014088, 8013905, 8014114, 8014131, 8014087, 8014090; 20,000 litres of diesel on invoice Nos. 8013898 and 8014089; 24,000 litres of diesel on invoice No. 8014104 and 25,000 litres of diesel on invoice Nos. 8014102, 8014121 and 8014103.

The sources said that the PSO officials have selected two petrol pumps in the city where they have shown selling of the diesel.

The PSO officials had shown the sale of the 229,000 litres of diesel to one of the two petrol pumps. But interestingly the petrol pump had the storage capacity of less then 100,000 litres, the sources maintained.

The PSO officials in their records had shown selling 3.6 million litres of diesel to the same petrol pump in April, which was next to impossible, the sources added.

"No, I have not received any information regarding the Friday event," said Nadeem Afridi, divisional manager of the PSO at Taru Jabba, when contacted on cellular phone. He declined to give further details.