A swoop by ASAE, Portugal’s health and safety inspection authority, has identified 16 fuel stations up and down the country where clients (and the State) are being ‘swindled’ by doctored fuel gauges and other bureaucratic ‘lapses’.
The gauges that err on the side of the supplier have been detected in various parts of the country, writes Correio da Manhã. But ASAE, for the time being, is keeping mum as to their whereabouts.
CM explains that inspectors “received instructions to exhaustively verify the transparency of measurement equipment in the sale of gas and fuel”.
Stations servicing LPG-powered vehicles were thus also checked – as well as fuel stations’ pumps for filling tyres.
Sixteen infractions have been logged and the businesses involved now have six months to “present a defence” before ASAE moves on to the next stage of issuing fines, says CM.
Among irregularities are cases where businesses selling fuel were not even declaring it to the authorities and/or had not been properly inspected for safety.
Others flagged fuel pumps not displaying the right prices, while a total of 1700 litres of fuel (“some of it adulterated”), valued at €9,300, were seized.
As CM explained, the objective of ASAE’s exercise was to “guarantee that all clients receive exactly the quantities of fuel that they pay for”.
