Consumers urged to file suit over faulty gas pumps

Consumers urged to file suit over faulty gas pumps

Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

In response to the discovery that pumps at 51 gas stations in
Greater Jakarta and West Java had been tampered with, a consumer
rights activist urged class-action lawsuits against the stations,
state oil company Pertamina and the Ministry of Trade.

Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) chairwoman Indah
Suksmaningsih said on Monday consumers should cooperate in
collecting evidence of violations at each of the gas stations in
question.

Pertamina announced on Sunday that 51 gas stations had been
found to have tampered with their pumps, resulting in customers
getting less gas for their money.

"Consumers must take class action against the gas stations
because filing individual lawsuits is useless. The same is true
for taking action against Pertamina and the Ministry of Trade,"
she told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Indah said Pertamina and the ministry could be held
responsible in this case because it was their responsibility to
monitor gas stations.

According to regulations, Pertamina has the authority to
appoint businesspeople to operate gas stations, while the trade
ministry is responsible for ensuring the accuracy of the
stations' pumps.

Indah said an individual consumer had filed an earlier lawsuit
against a gas station over inaccurate pumps.

"However, the court found the consumer did not have enough
evidence. The gas station in turn filed a Rp 70 billion lawsuit
against the consumer for defamation," she said.

Article 8 of Law No. 8/1999 stipulates that people are
prohibited from selling goods that are not of the same quantity
and quality as promised, while Article 62 of the same law
stipulates that violators are subject to a maximum punishment of
five years in prison or a Rp 2 billion fine.

In making its announcement on Sunday, Pertamina said it had
issued warning letters to the gas stations in question and had
temporarily stopped their gas supplies or shut down their
operations.

The state company said the 51 gas stations had pumps that
exceeded the tolerable level of 50 millimeters difference between
the amount of gas actually pumped and the amount recorded on the
pump for every 10 liters of gas purchased.

Checks on the stations found pumps with differences of between
50 millimeters and 300 millimeters between the amount of gas
recorded on the pumps on the amount of gas actually pumped.

Indah said in 2001 the consumers foundation found a similar
number of gas stations that had tampered with their pumps.

"So there has been no progress in the last four years.
Consumers have continued to lose all these years," she said.

Awi Adil, spokesman for Pertamina's operations unit III, which
covers Jakarta and West Java, said the company had summoned the
owners of the gas stations to deliver them a verbal warning.

"We summoned them and told them to fix their pumps as soon as
possible. We continue to monitor them every day. If we find that
they continue to commit the same violation we will shut them
down," he told the Post.