The Chamber of Petroleum Consumers (COPEC), has asked customers who doubt the quantity of fuel sold to them at the pump to request for the fuel to be put in a ten litre can.
The container can be used to test whether you’re being given fuel equal to your money’s worth.
Speaking to Citi Business News, the Executive Secretary of COPEC, Duncan Amoah, said consumers must make such demands to ensure they have value for their money.
He explained: ‘When there arises a dispute or conflict of whether you are getting what you have paid for, that is why the Ghana Standards Authority of Ghana, has provided for the 10 litre can in every fuel station across the country. Now if you go to a station and you buy fuel worth GHS100 or GHS20 and where your gauge should have gone to, the gauge doesn’t get there, immediately request for the 10 litre can because what went into the car you cannot see with your eyes but what is put in the 10 litre can, you can see with your eyes”.
He added that, “We have seen instances where some stations will tell you that the 10-litre can is in the manager’s office. The 10 litre can is not meant for the manager’s office. It is not a trophy; it is for the consumer. It is not a decorative piece. It should be at the fore court when they start selling fuel. And so when you are not clear in your mind what has been delivered into your car because your gauge says that you’re not seeing what you paid for, as for the 10-litre can if they say it is in the manager’s office, insist that it should be brought. If they don’t want to bring it, chances are that, there is something they want to cover up,” Duncan Amoah said.
Last year, the Ghana Standards Authority, after unannounced visits to 65 fuel stations found that 10 of them, had allegedly shortchanging consumers by serving them less fuel.