Cheating at petrol pumps and gas stations
DR. ATIQUE MUFTI
THIS observation is not from the distant past but only a year or so back: I noticed that at some petrol pumps and CNG stations if you give a Rs1000 note for gas of (say) Rs200 the attendant will return to you a change of Rs300 without the Rs500 note which was also due with the balance as Rs800. On questioning the attendant, he would apologise and add a Rs500 note, saying that he forgot to return it.
In some other situations if the gas bill was (say) Rs220, the attendant would deduct Rs320 and return only return Rs180 back to the customer out of his Rs500 note. This practice of incorrect return of change was backed by additional support as the attendant, before getting this transaction settled, would change the reading of the meter.
With the passage of time the apologetic attitude of the attendants went away and was replaced by their insisting and swearing attitude to prove that the change returned was justified and correct.
Awakened by this psychological fraud, I kept a track of this trend. Just within a few months’ time, I noticed that the frequency of encountering these frauds have increased manifold as more and more filling stations have adopted them.
My occasional reporting to the managers of the stations concerned could only bring a spot lip-service but without tangible results.
Now as Pro Bono Publico, I may shock the nation that these kind of fraudulent exercises are increasing like chain reactions not only at petrol pumps but are now visible in many commercial shops also.
The popularity of such exercises are increasing rapidly day by day as during the past week alone I came across such encounters at three gas stations in different sectors of Islamabad and two while driving from Islamabad to Lahore. My further inquiries revealed that the owners of the stations have a share in this booty.
If this increasing fraud is not taken seriously and nipped in the bud (which is now no more a bud but has become a fully-grown flower), then every rational mind can foresee it as culminating into spot arguments/quarrels, street/station scuffles and possibly leading to occasional murders.
Since these trends cannot be curbed without stern action from the public, administration, legislature and the judiciary; hence, it is brought to the notice of all those concerned.
SOURCE
DAWN.COM