51 gas stations fiddle meters to pump up profits

51 gas stations fiddle meters to pump up profits

Abdul Khalik
The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

A total of 51 gas stations across Greater Jakarta have been found
to have tampered with their pump meters, prompting state-owned
oil and gas company PT Pertamina to either suspend gasoline
supplies or shut down their operations.

The 51 gas stations include establishments located on Jl. Raya
Buncit, South Jakarta, Klender in East Jakarta, Cakung and Pluit
in North Jakarta, several areas of West Jakarta, Bukit Sentul in
Bogor, Jl. Raya Pekayon in Bekasi and Jl. Raya Cipondoh in
Tangerang.

Pertamina's metering unit found during recent checks that the
gas stations had pumps with meters recording more than was
actually pumped into their customers' gas tanks. The problem had
apparently been going on for months

Awi Adil, spokesman for Pertamina's operations unit III, which
covers Greater Jakarta, said that a number of gas stations had
been issued with warnings while many others had had their
gasoline supplies halted for a week, two weeks, or a month,
depending on the seriousness of the violations.

"We have even ordered several gas stations to close because of
serious violations," Awi told The Jakarta Post.

He said the 51 stations had meters that exceeded the tolerable
level of 50 millimeters divergence between the amount of gas
actually pumped and the amount recorded on the meter for every 10
liters of gas purchased.

"We've shut down gas stations that were off by more than 300
milliliters, and stopped supplying gas stations that pumped
between 100 millimeters and 200 millimeters less than the amount
recorded on the meter," Awi said.

He added that Pertamina only gave warnings to stations that
pumped between 50 millimeters and 100 millimeters less than the
amount recorded on the meter.

Awi said that Pertamina had taken stern action against several
gas stations as they had deliberately modified their meters to
take advantage of their customers.

The customers would get about 3 percent less fuel than they
actually paid for, so that, for example, if a consumer bought 10
liters of fuel, he would only receive about 9.7 liters.

"Imagine how much these gas station make given that hundreds
of motorists buy gasoline in them every day," he said.

So far, only one gas station, on Jl. Gatot Subroto, had been
reported to the police, he said.

In March, Pertamina temporarily closed eight gas stations for
tampering with their meters while in April seven gas stations in
Tangerang were shut down for similar violations.

Pertamina also found around 50 gas stations tampering with
their meters in 2004.