THIS IS HOW THEY DO IT: Wan Uzir shows a picture from his handphone of a vehicle with a specially modified petrol tank used by smugglers to buy and transfer subsidised diesel.
KUCHING: The Ministry of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism on Friday night foiled an attempt to smuggle out 2,000 litres of subsidised diesel from a petrol station in Batu Kawa.
Its state director Wan Ahmad Uzir Wan Sulaiman said both the petrol station owner and the buyer involved in the case would be charged.
“Once convicted, the owner of the petrol station could be fined RM100,000 or three years imprisonment, under the Control of Supplies Act 1961,” said Ahmad Uzir at the Stutong community market yesterday.
He said the value of diesel and the vehicle used came to nearly RM20,000. Ahmad Uzir said that the owner of the petrol station claimed that he sold the subsidised diesel under duress.
“If that is the case, the owner should report the matter to the police if he is threatened over a period of time,” said Ahmad Uzir.
According to him, it was clearly stated in the licence issued by the ministry that drastic action will be taken against the owners of petrol stations who are caught selling subsidised diesel to smugglers.
Ahmad Uzir also said they had been monitoring several petrol stations under suspicion of smuggling over the past three months.
“Once we place our enforcement officers there, all the attempts to sell and smuggle out the subsidised diesels stopped,” said Ahmad Uzir.
He said among the signs that they were looking for is the high volume of diesel sold which does not tally with the number of diesel engine vehicles that patronise the station.
Ahmad Uzir said KPDNKK recorded 51 cases of attempts to smuggle out subsidised diesel worth RM3.9million last year.
Kuching tops the table with 19 cases with a value of RM2.6 million.