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After having raised the price of an LPG cylinder by Rs 50, the least that the Union Government can do is to ensure that consumers are not cheated on the quantity of cooking gas that they buy. It can do this by instructing oil companies to ensure that each cylinder is weighed at the consumer's doorstep by using weighing machines that are properly verified and authenticated. This should be done voluntarily by those delivering the cylinder, without waiting for the consumer to ask for it. State governments, too, can ensure that customers are not cheated on the quantity of cooking gas that they buy by stepping up checks on (a) the bottling plants of oil companies and (b) godowns of LPG distributors. They should also check the refills being transported for delivery to the consumers. This way the government can ensure that consumers get the 14.2 kg of cooking gas that they pay for. A cylinder can be under-filled at the bottling plant itself. Or there could be pilferage of gas during transportation of the cylinders from the bottling plant to the distributor or from the distributor to the customer. In fact, in 2005, the Department of Weights and Measures, Delhi Government, had slapped a fine of Rs 90,000 on the Indian Oil Company. Raids by the department on two bottling plants of the IOC — one at Tikri Kalan and the other at Madanpur Khadar — had shown large-scale violation of the law governing weights and measures. While at the first bottling plant, 25 per cent of the cylinders checked were found to be underweight, at the second, 50 per cent were found to be weighing less than the declared 14.2 kg. The shortage ranged from 1 to 3.2 kg. In response to a complaint filed by a Rourkela-based consumer group — Consumer Protection Council — some years ago on a similar issue, the apex court had directed oil companies to not only ensure accurate filling of the gas, but also provide for doorstep weighing of the cylinder at the time of delivery. Yet, even today, not every delivery man in the country carries a weighing machine. Even when it is carried, they try to avoid weighing the cylinder and do so only when consumers insist on it. The reason for such reluctance to weigh the cylinder at the doorstep of the customer is obvious. At regular intervals, the police and the Department of Weights and Measures have uncovered irregularities involving the sale of cooking gas. Since there is a wide gap between the price of the domestic cooking gas and the commercial cooking gas, delivery men are known to "lend" the domestic gas to commercial establishments, for a price of course. The half-used or half-empty cylinders are then supplied to domestic consumers. In fact, such complaints of delivery of underweight cylinders and black-marketing of cooking gas had come from different parts of the country in the first five months of the year, when there were reports of gas shortage. In Delhi, in response to complaints on that score made by Delhi BJP president Harsh Vardhan, Food and Civil Supplies Minister of Delhi Haroon Yusuf had said that the government had initiated stringent measures to curb such tendencies, and by the end of May, over 100 FIRs had been filed against those indulging in such malpractices. If delivery men had to weigh the cylinder at the customer's doorstep, they would not have had the courage to sell part of the gas to commercial enterprises. So weighing them at the consumer's premises is a must. The weighing machine should also be duly calibrated and verified by the Department of Legal Metrology and should carry the seal of the department in a prominent manner so that consumers can see it. Oil companies should
also urge customers, through advertisements, to check the weight at
the time of delivery. The distributors should also be asked to inform
consumers about the weighing machine when they book the refill.
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