The Hindu Business Line : Govt amends oil marketing guidelines, control orders

Advertisement

New Delhi Feb. 8 The Petroleum Ministry has amended the Marketing Discipline Guidelines (MDGs) 2005 and carried out required amendments in the Control Orders to provide legal backing to the practice of blending kerosene with the approved marker.

The Petroleum Secretary, Mr M.S. Srinivasan, while reviewing the new system of marking kerosene with marker to prevent diversion of kerosene for adulteration and to ensure its availability to the targeted beneficiaries, said that his Ministry has issued the necessary notification for amending the Control Orders on January 12 and subsequently amended the MDG.

to prevent adulteration

The Secretary said that the MDGs have also been amended by providing a special chapter on blending of marker in potential adulterants. He pointed out that the latest initiative is part of the Government's efforts to weed out malpractices in the distribution of petroleum products so that consumers get quality products.

It was indicated in the meeting that with the new system, adulteration of petrol and diesel could be effectively prevented.

Marker supplier

According to an official release, in order to stabilise the system all over the country, the marker supplier Authentix of the UK has trained about 2,000 field officers of public sector oil marketing companies and has made available the test kits at all locations.

The marker suppliers carried out checks in about 10,000 retail outlets through a third party, which resulted in about 134 sample failures in December 2006 and January this year.

The dealers did not allow the team to carry out testing in 72 cases. In two cases in Uttar Pradesh and in one case in Bihar, the testing party was threatened.

In these cases, appropriate action is being pursued.