The LMO has received around five more complaints of people getting less fuel at petrol pumps in the city.
After the legal metrology organisation (LMO) detected a case where a fuel dispensing unit at a Santa Cruz petrol pump was tampered with to show inflated readings and fleece consumers, the organisation is insisting on the technology used in these machines to be upgraded. This will prevent instances of short delivery (less delivery than what has been paid for) to consumers.
The LMO has received around five more complaints of people getting less fuel at petrol pumps in the city.
"(This involves) technology tampering. So, we will evaluate if better technology is available, which can't lead to tampering. Manufacturers were also called for the meeting. This (upgraded technology) will make it (manipulation) harder… we are insisting on that," said Sanjay Pandey, controller, LMO, Maharashtra, who held a meeting with oil marketing companies (OMCs), manufacturers and stakeholders on Friday.
"The current installed technology is old. So, we are planning to upgrade this technology and make it difficult to open pulsers and install chips and manipulate motherboards," he added, noting that the present system where seals were installed by "punching" lead ingots issued by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was not foolproof.
In the Santa Cruz case, the pulsers were allegedly tampered with to show increased readings on meters and take more money from consumers.
"We are seriously looking at how these units are manufactured and at the places of manufacturing, they are not stamped," said Pandey, insisting that after these dispensing machines were manufactured, they needed to be verified at the manufacturers' end.
Representatives of the Consortium of Indian Petroleum Dealers also met Pandey. Ramesh Kundanmal, chairman, legal affairs, Federation of All Maharashtra Petrol Dealers Association, said it was not correct to tar all petrol dealers with the same brush.
"We took up strongly that when the seal itself was intact, how can petrol dealers be blamed? There is a reason to state that the (LMOs) own officers (too) can be held responsible if dealers are to be held responsible" he said, adding that the onus also lay on OMCs and manufacturers.
Kundanmal said that because the retailers did not have flow meters and their underground petrol tanks were not calibrated, they could not establish the quantity of fuel they received.
The lacuna in the system was that they received petrol from OMCs on weight and supplied it to consumers on the basis of litres, he noted.
"Black sheep need to be weeded out," said Ravi Shinde, president, Petrol Dealers Association, Mumbai, while, however, opposing blanket raids on dealers. He added that under the law manufacturers must get their machines verified before sale.
"Any raid that happens, will happen only on authentic grounds," said Pandey.
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