The Bhutanese Leading the way.
There has been much outcry after large numbers of brand-new Euro 6 diesel vehicles across different companies were failing or requiring repeated maintenance.
The main suspect was the quality of fuel coming in from fuel companies in India, as the fuel were all supposed to be Euro 6 but some vehicle dealers said it is not the case.
The paper even pointed out two fuel quality reports of samples taken from broken down vehicles that showed the fuel quality was not to Euro 6 standard, and this is why the engines were being impacted.
While it was clear that fuel quality was the main cause, it was not clear that whether the fuel was being manipulated within Bhutan or outside.
This paper, in its investigation, pointed out that the fuel contamination was likely happening across the border as it did not make much sense to adulterate the fuel in Bhutan, given the similar prices between kerosene and petrol and diesel.
The same couldn’t be said in India where there is still a major price gap between kerosene and its petrol and diesel prices, due to higher local taxes on petrol and diesel in India.
This is in addition to a long and well-documented history, as well as current practices of fuel adulteration in India where fuel pumps there add cheaper kerosene to more expensive petrol and diesel to increase profit margins.
One of the main suspicions is on the fuel transporters who neither belong to the oil companies in India nor the oil dealers in Bhutan, and they ferry fuel from Siliguri to Phuentsholing or from Assam to Gelephu and Samdrupjongkhar.
While there is no hard evidence, there is a huge economic incentive to siphon hundreds, if not thousands of liters of petrol and diesel from each truck, and replace it with cheap kerosene.
The siphoned petrol and diesel can then be sold in India where their price is much higher due to taxes and fuel price differences between the two countries.
This has now been proven true after the Department of Trade (DoT), after all the hullabaloo, started collecting samples.
Towards the third week of September 2024, eight fuel samples of MS (petrol) and HSD (diesel) were collected from Indian fuel tankers (IOCL, BPCL and HPCL) before being decanted into the dealers’ underground tanks in Phuentsholing.
Since Bhutan does not have the appropriate equipment to test for certain fuel parameters, these samples were then sent to a third-party laboratory for testing.
Out of the eight samples sent for testing, one sample did not meet Euro 6 standards, while the others were within the permissible parameters.
Since these fuel samples were collected from the fuel tankers while still in transit, and not yet unloaded in Bhutan, DoT has again requested for meetings with the Quality Control Department of the Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) in India who supply fuel to Bhutan to discuss these matters in detail.
DoT has also recently followed up on these requests for meetings and is currently awaiting a response.
The paper asked DoT for a copy of the test reports and the identity of the company; however, both were declined.
DoT said that in accordance with the arrangements between department and the third-party laboratory that is based on good will nurtured over several years, the test reports are to be treated as confidential and not used in the media without the prior consent of the lab.
DoT said, “Since we do not have prior consent from the lab, we are unable to share a copy of the test report at this point.”
