Saturday, 12 July 2008

Border filling stations asked to check oil smuggling

VietnamNet
11/07/2008

VietNamNet Bridge – Filling stations in Tay Ninh Province bordering Cambodia have been told to stop selling petrol in bulk to buyers in an effort to prevent oil products from flowing into the neighboring country where petrol is priced higher, a local official said.

Do Thanh Hoa, director of the provincial Department of Industry and Trade, told the Daily his department had just required all petrol stations in the province not to sell petrol to the buyers who use cans or barrels to contain the fuel.

"The order is already given to all 285 gas stations in the province as more people are increasingly involved in smuggling petrol from the province to Cambodia in recent months," Hoa told the Daily on Tuesday. He explained that at the time being, the petrol price in Cambodia is some US$1.2 per liter while the price in the province is much cheaper, at less than VND15,000, or some 90 US cents.

Many motorbike riders have been stealthily transporting petrol in plastic cans to Cambodia to earn a wide margin, he said.

"Early this year, we limited the volume of petrol sold to all stations in the border zone to some 150,000 liters each per month to check the illicit trade. Since then, many smugglers have gone further inland to buy the gas with large amount in cans and barrels," Hoa said.

To put a choke on the illegal gas transport across the border, gas stations along the border have been asked to sell a maximum 50 liters of petrol for each buyer at one time.

According to Hoa, the department last week closed a gas station in the province for violating the order.

Hoa estimated that oil smuggling has fallen by some 30% compared to the high time in March.
In the first six months of the year, the province's market monitoring agencies confiscated some 75,000 liters of petrol found being illegally trafficked to Cambodia.

The Market Monitoring Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade said that petrol smuggling in the Mekong Delta tended to increase lately, with some 15,000 liters of petrol smuggled to Cambodia per day.

(Source: SGT)

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