ADULTERATION OF FUEL IN DELHI

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Shri Santosh Kumar Gangwar, Minister of State for Petroleum & Natural Gas in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, today informed that out of 618 samples received from enforcing agencies and tested and reported by the Society for Petroleum Laboratory (SFPL) upto 19.12.2002 the failure rate was 2.4%. Anti Adulteration Cell reported the failure rate of samples in whole of north as around 1.5%. Out of a total of 19754 samples tested by oil companies in the last one year, the failure rate was 1.2%. In view of the above reporting by three agencies including one independent agency i.e. Anti Adulteration Cell, the results of Centre of Science and Environment (CSE) cannot be trusted. This can particularly be attributed to adoption of wrong methodology, handling and improper sampling and their inadequate expertise. In reply to another question Shri Gangwar said that the Oil Industry is testing fuels as per BIS specifications, complying with test methods given in relevant BIS specifications. Only those test methods which are specified in the BIS specifications are used for testing the sulphur levels in fuels at refineries, storage locations of oil companies and retail outlets. Moreover, the test methods specified in BIS specification are based on international test methods.