Md Nawawi (centre) checking the fuel content at the Shell petrol station along Jalan Kuching-Samarahan. – Photo by Chimon Upon
KUCHING: The Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs (KPDNHEP) in Sarawak will continue to comprehensively monitor all petrol stations in the state following the government’s decision to review the retail price of petrol.
Its state deputy director Md Nawawi Abdul Rahman said this is to ensure that no petrol stations come up with sneaky tricks to avoid losses or gain profit from the government’s decision.
According to him, these include technical problems where the stations do not want to accept the petrol supply, suppressing petrol supply so that consumers will not be able to purchase petrol, closing the station early and so on.
Such action, he said, infringes the licensing conditions in which operators must ensure that there is adequate supply of fuel at all times.
“We have carried out 392 inspections and monitored 235 petrol stations throughout the state of which 202 enforcement officers were deployed to ensure that each petrol station has supply stock of petrol.
“This is because there are instances where a 24-hour petrol station decided to close for the night or gave excuses that their fuel pump has broken down. Such cases usually happen whenever the government decides to raise or lower petrol market prices,” he told reporters after conducting a check at a Shell petrol station along Jalan Kuching-Samarahan here today.
Md Nawawi, who is also KPDNHEP Sarawak head of enforcement officers, pointed out that normally when petrol prices go down, the station operators do not want to accept stocks.
“On the other hand, when petrol prices increase, they will try to close the station early ot create technical problem so as to store existing petrol stocks in underground tanks for profit after the new price is declared.”
In view of this, he thus urged consumers to report or lodge their complaints to KPDNHEP through http://e-aduan.kpdnhep.gov.my should they come across petrol stations breaking the law.
“On a positive note, out of the 392 inspections we carried out, we found that at present, no petrol station in Sarawak had committed an offence under the Control of Supplies Act 1961, Weights and Measures Act 1972 and Trade Descriptions Act 2011.
Meanwhile, on the issue of petrol shortage in rural areas such as Kapit, Md Nawawi said there is no shortages of fuel in the area.
“There is no fuel shortage here. It is just that the suppliers are limited as there are only two petrol stations in Kapit namely Petronas and another station with no brand.
“Consumers usually purchase petrol from Petronas because the petrol price at this ‘no-name’ station cost 10 sen more per liter compared to Petronas,” he explained.
However, he said the ministry will not be taking any action on this particular petrol station despite not complying with the government’s fixed price as it bears the cost of transportation of its petrol from Tanjung Manis to Kapit unlike Petronas which is subsidised.