MIRI – Four people were arrested and subsidised diesel worth RM290,000 was seized in raids by the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry at a warehouse in the Krokop housing estate here.
The warehouse had been used as an illegal diesel depot, the ministry’s Miri enforcement chief Joe Azmi Jamil said today.
“Based on public information, we raided the place and found people who had stored a big amount of government-subsidised diesel taken from petrol stations to sell for profit,” he said today.
The raid was carried out with help from police’s General Operations Force.
On October 4, the ministry had also conducted successful raids on several locations in Miri, including the Morsjaya Commercial Centre as well as the Riam residential estate.
At Morsjaya, it was found that four-wheel-drive vehicles had been modified by the culprits in order to store a larger amount of subsidised diesel bought from petrol stations.
Earlier raids in August also found that government-subsidised diesel was being sold to plantation companies and factories from another illegal fuel depot in a forested location on the outskirts of Miri.
The above cases are all being probed under Section 20(1) of the Controlled Items Act 1961 for abusing government-controlled fuel, said Azmi.
On August 10, the ministry’s enforcement units here also busted an illegal diesel depot operating in the outskirts of Miri city that was selling government-subsidised diesel meant for the public to big plantations and factories.
Big companies like plantations, logging operators, and factories are not allowed to buy the subsidised fuel.
They are supposed to buy fuel at the industrial rate from the ministry, besides being required to have their own fuel depots for their truck fleets. – The Vibes, October 21, 2022
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