With many new brand-new Euro 6 diesel vehicles across different companies failing or requiring repeated maintenance, the main suspect was the fuel quality being sent to Bhutan.
The paper even accessed 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.
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.
With no official response, DoT followed up on these requests for meetings in November and still did not get a response.
A senior official said that the PSU companies want to confirm the result from their side.
The ministry is in the process of getting a budget of Nu 4 or 5 mn to get equipment that can measure Sulphur in fuel at the fuel lab and depot at Thinchupangkha near Chunzom.
A response from the Department of Trade (DoT) said that DoT has requested the PSUs for the meeting and they have not received confirmation from the respective PSUs till date. The department has escalated this request to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and External Trade on 24th December to take up the matter with the Government of India to facilitate the deputation of relevant quality control officials from the PSUs to resolve fuel quality issues.
DoT said it has trained its laboratory officials to carry out necessary tests and have proposed a budget to procure Sulphur testing equipment.