Fuel Stations In India Should Get Transparents Hoses To Prevent Fraud — New Plea In Supreme Court

NEW DELHI: A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court (SC) suggesting that fuel stations in India should get transparent hoses to fill up vehicles. The intent of this is just to make the flow of petrol or diesel to the car's fuel tank, visible to the driver.

ET Auto shares that the plea made by Adv Amit Sahni claimed the fuel stations across India are performing "systematic and organised cheating" to their customers. To strengthen the petition, various news articles, videos, television coverage and social media posts have been collected and compiled.

"It is evident that fuel vending at petrol pumps is required to be made more transparent and fair. Black hose pipe used for fuel vending may be replaced with a transparent pipe so that the consumer must see the fuel passing through the same in his/her vehicle," said the plea.

In addition to this, the petition also mentioned that "a transparent dispenser with measurements may be installed/connected along with the fuel vending machines". The transparent dispenser will be filled first and then the same will be transmitted through the hose; thus leaving no loopholes to conduct fraud.

However, no action was taken in this regard, to date.

In the past few years, petrol station frauds have increased at an alarming rate. Many have raised complaints that their vehicle's fuel gauge is not showing the expected quantity, for the price they had paid at the station.

Some remote fuel stations have even been accused of mixing foreign liquids with fuel in order to show false quantity. Such acts will cause severe issues to the car's engine and could even pose a safety risk.

Other forms of fraud include the staff bypassing fuel to another container rather than the car's tank; obviously, without the driver knowing. In most cases, such acts are done by the outlet staff for their own personal gain while the respective petroleum brand has no role in it.

But ultimately, it is only the brand's image which gets deteriorated if such acts are caught and reported. Certain companies have lost a lot of money trying to prevent such news from being revealed to the public. For the same reason, the petroleum industry is taking its own measures to find a solution to this.

Fuel prices in India are increasing at a steep rate while also taking up a good part of the consumer's income. Hence, if a customer notices any kind of malpractices from a fuel station, they are determined to cross any borders to seek justice.

Thoughts On Making Fuel Hoses Transparent At Petrol/Diesel Stations

The plea suggests only a few things and they all can be considered implementable. By making fuel hoses transparent, individuals can instantly take notice of fraud if the hose does not show any colour changes throughout the filling process. This is a simple workaround and we really hope that it will come into effect soon.