Many consumers are being cheated by gasoline dealers as it’s a seller’s market with fuel scarce and desperate motorists snapping up whatever is offered. However, very few offending petrol pumps have been caught by the authorities despite the flourishing black market.

The Department of Commerce and Supply Management (DoCSM) has taken action against a miniscule number of petrol pumps in the last three months since India imposed an unofficial trade embargo and choked off Nepal’s fuel supply.

On Monday, the department sealed Surya Binayak Oil Store in Sallaghari, Bhaktapur. The petrol pump has been blamed for selling adulterated fuel to its customers.

DoCSM Director Hari Narayan Belbase said they sealed the gas station after receiving complaints from motorists. “Five vehicle owners have filed complaints with the department that the fuel sold by the pump had damaged the engines of their vehicles,” he said.

The department said that water may have been mixed with the diesel sold by the gasoline station. “The sample that we took was cloudy in appearance,” said Belbase, adding that they had sent the sample for lab testing to the Nepal Bureau of Standards and Metrology (NBSM).

According to him, they will begin proceedings after receiving the lab report. “If the sample is found to be adulterated, we will take action against the proprietor under Consumers Protection Act 1998,” Belbase said.

Three weeks ago, a joint team of the DoCSM and NBSM had sealed seven petrol pumps in Kavrepalanchok district. Ugrachandi Oil Store and Mata Ugrachandi Oil Store based in Banepa, Jaya Ambe Petrol Pump in Panauti and Narayan Petrol Pump in Janaga, Panchkhal Oil Store of Panchkhal and Mata Palanchok Fuel Centre were sealed for committing irregularities.

The DoCSM’s record also shows that most of the 17 firms against whom action was taken for black marketing between mid-July and mid-November were gasoline stations and cooking gas depots. Similarly, of the 168 petrol pumps that the department inspected from mid-October to mid-November, 75 were found flouting its directives.

On Monday, the DoCSM issued a circular to gas bottlers and depots instructing them to submit their business records. “We have asked bottlers and depots to provide information to the control unit set up at Nepal Oil Corporation,” said DoCSM Director General Shambhu Koirala.

Koirala said bottlers had been instructed to provide the details of the number of gas bullets received and a list of the dealers to whom they have dispatched their products. “Similarly, gas depots have been told to provide the names and contact numbers of their customers,” he said.

According to the department, it was prompted to crack down after receiving a number of complaints that gas bottlers and depots had been selling the fuel mostly to their near and dear ones and hotels.