Illegal diesel depot raided

[Zhou Tai]

Thursday December 16, 2010

Illegal diesel depot raided

KLANG: A warehouse of a diesel wholesaler here was raided after it was believed to have been used for buying and selling subsidised fuel worth millions of ringgit. The state Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry’s enforcement division raided the warehouse following a tip-off that a lorry was transporting subsidised diesel from Port Klang.

Assistant enforcement officer Mohd Tarmizi Ariffin said the lorry, which had earlier left a fuel depot for the warehouse in Pandamaran, was loaded with 19,800 litres of diesel worth some RM33,660. “My team, consisting of two officers and five nanotech lab researchers, caught two suspects red-handed as they were transferring diesel into three tankers,” he told reporters at the scene yesterday.

Oily find: Domestic Trade, Co-operative and Consumerism Affairs Department officer Mohamed Fauzan Wasil (left) and Tarmizi at the warehouse where the subsidised diesel was stored in Pandamaran, Port Klang

Tarmizi said the warehouse had about six tanks but only three were filled with diesel. “We confirmed that the diesel was government-subsidised after conducting a nanotech test on the fuel,” he said, adding that the warehouse did not have a licence to buy and sell subsidised diesel.

“It is illegal to even store subsidised diesel.” State enforcement chief Mohd Najib Sharhol Kiah said all the subsidised diesel from the warehouse was seized. Najib did not rule out the possibility that the company could have sold millions of ringgit worth of subsidised diesel so far.

“No arrest was made but we have taken a statement from the wholesaler and confiscated a tanker containing diesel,” he said. Meanwhile, the wholesaler said it was “a small matter” as most wholesalers did the same.

“I am only selling the oil to industry players within the country and not smuggling them to those outside the country,” he said. The case is being investigated under the Supply Control Act 1961, which carries a RM250,000 fine or three-year jail term upon conviction.