News / National
Fuel dealers arrested for compromising fuel quality
27 Aug 2013 at 16:52hrs | Views
The Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA) has threatened to withdraw operating licences of at least 10 fuel dealers who were arrested for compromising fuel quality and misleading customers through false labelling of their products.
The 10 dealers were arrested following an operation carried out by ZERA and its partners to find out if fuel dealers are complying with operating procedures.
In an interview, the ZERA CEO, Engineer Gloria Magombo said at least 10 fuel dealers were found on the wrong side of the law compromising quality of fuel on the market.
"For over 228 tests carried out, six were contaminated with diesel and were immediately locked for further investigations. We have other four cases of mislabelling by most of the retailers selling e10 while labelled unleaded, which is very unfair to the end user," said Engineer Magombo.
Engineer Magombo urged the petroleum industry to comply with the operating standards or risk losing their licences.
"We urge all stakeholders to comply with the regulations for the growth of the industry as licences will be withdrawn, which will be a blow to firms," she said.
The petroleum industry has 384 licensed players this year as compared to 299 players last year.
There are 334 petroleum retailers in Zimbabwe up from last year's 229.
The local petroleum industry has become an attractive venture where there is serious competition but some are resorting to unorthodox ways of making profits.
The 10 dealers were arrested following an operation carried out by ZERA and its partners to find out if fuel dealers are complying with operating procedures.
In an interview, the ZERA CEO, Engineer Gloria Magombo said at least 10 fuel dealers were found on the wrong side of the law compromising quality of fuel on the market.
"For over 228 tests carried out, six were contaminated with diesel and were immediately locked for further investigations. We have other four cases of mislabelling by most of the retailers selling e10 while labelled unleaded, which is very unfair to the end user," said Engineer Magombo.
"We urge all stakeholders to comply with the regulations for the growth of the industry as licences will be withdrawn, which will be a blow to firms," she said.
The petroleum industry has 384 licensed players this year as compared to 299 players last year.
There are 334 petroleum retailers in Zimbabwe up from last year's 229.
The local petroleum industry has become an attractive venture where there is serious competition but some are resorting to unorthodox ways of making profits.
Source - zbc
