Most CNG refuelling station owners misappropriate millions of taka from vehicle owners and drivers, providing them with less gas than they pay for. The owners also cheat distributors by tampering with the meters.
Additionally, any inspection or legal action against the offenders is often referred to as harassment, leading to reactions like countrywide shutdowns of refuelling stations.
Officials of gas distribution companies have said the racket was uncovered during recent drives led by Petrobangla Magistrate Raja Mohammad Abdul Hye across the country. He inspected about 20 CNG (compressed natural gas) refuelling stations over the last year and collected fines amounting to Tk3m. They were fined from Tk50,000 to Tk500,000.
The drive uncovered that a station on average cheated customers of Tk1m each month. Given the number of CNG stations operating across the country, the amount being embezzled every month would stand at around Tk500m, suggests a preliminary estimate.
“CNG stations cheat consumers by tampering with the meter and supplying gas at a lower specific gravity [the ration of gas density] that the required 0.68... The CNG stations set the gravity of gas to 0.58,” said Raja.
The chief of the owner’s association, Zakir Hossain Nayan, said the CNG stations did not receive gas at the required gravity to begin with.
Pashchimanchal Gas Company Limited Managing Director, Md Ali Hossain refuted Nayan’s claim. “Our gas has a specific gravity ranging from 0.68 to 0.7, and this number does not vary.”
The magistrate said the corrupt stations were able to tamper with the meters because they did not have Electronic Volume Correctors (EVC).
The mobile court implicated the owner of the Shanto CNG Refuelling Station at Dhaka’s Mugda on May 22, Abdul Motin Khan, who is also the vice-president of the CNG Station Owners’ Association.
Motin alleged that the magistrate had illegally uninstalled the EVC meter from his refilling station.
However, Raja said Motin’s meter was seized for analysis because it was not operational and that he had been give a new meter with five days.
The magistrate said he inspected the Semco CNG Filling Station in Madhabpur of Habiganj on July 2 and found that they had cheated customers of Tk5m over the last five months. He fined them Tk300,000.
He said they raided the Shah Amanat CNG Station on June 26 and fined it Tk300,000, and Chittagong’s Laila CNG Station on June 29 collecting Tk500,000 in fines.
Meanwhile, in protest against the drives, CNG station owners in Sylhet started an indefinite strike on July 4.
The strike started after authorities of the Bengal Gasoline CNG Filling Station in Mendibagh of Sylhet claimed that the mobile court had harassed officials and staff of the station owned by Sylhet city unit president of main opposition BNP MA Haque.
Following the strike in Sylhet, the owners’ association called for an indefinite strike throughout the country the next day demanding the withdrawal of the magistrate. However, seven hours into the strike they withdrew after assurances from the PM’s energy advisor Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury that the drives would be stopped.
Consumer Association of Bangladesh Energy Adviser Prof M Shamsul Alam said: “They complained that the magistrate was harassing the station owners. If that is the case, they should have taken legal steps. Petrobangla should have also clarified the matter... The people should not be hostage to the whims of anyone who feels like calling a strike”
Petrobangla Chairman Hossain Monsur said: “It is not fair to call the strike as they really do cheat the consumers.”
He said a six-member committee, headed by Md Quamruzzaman, director (operations) of Petrobangla, had been formed to supervise the CNG stations. The magistrate and a member of the CNG Station Owners’ Association are part of the committee.
Shamsul asked for EVC meters to be installed and for proper monitoring.
There are 585 stations operating in the country. All of them should be fitted with EVC meters by the government. However, only Titas Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Limited has provided these meters while two others partially installed EVC meters.
Nayan said: “Some may tamper with the meter, but the government was supposed to install EVC meters in all CNG stations.”