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.