Kerosene to be coloured to deter adulteration

In the biggest-ever anti-adulteration measure, the Centre has made it mandatory for oil companies to colour kerosene with an imported, unremovable marker to deter those mixing the cooking fuel with diesel.

"We plan to introduce marker in kerosene in 400 districts from October 1," Petroleum Secretary M S Srinivasan said here.

In September 2005, an NCAER study concluded that 38.6 per cent of PDS kerosene was being diverted for adulteration in petrol and diesel. The incentive being the huge price difference - while a litre of kerosene costs just over Rs 9, an equal volume of petrol in Delhi is priced at Rs 47.50 and diesel at Rs 32.40.

Srinivasan said the marker once induced in the adulterant (kerosene) cannot be removed/tampered. The marker would be imported from Authentix.

By using the marker system of Authentix, adulteration up to even 1 per cent could be detected on site, he said.

To ensure that the marker doped kerosene and petrol and diesel are not transported through the same tankers, exclusive trucks would be used for supply of kerosene. These trucks are also painted in a different colour scheme for each identification.

Srinivasan said the new marker would be different from the prevalent practice of using chemicals to colour kerosene blue as the imported marker cannot be tampered with. "A simple tool kit can detect use of marked kerosene as adulterant in petrol and diesel."

In its report NCAER has estimated the total diversion/leakage of kerosene at about 39 per cent of the total sale in 2004. It had reported very high (40 to 50 per cent) to extremely high leakage (more than 50 per cent) of PDS kerosene in 10 States/UTs of Assam, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu, Uttaranchal, Bihar, Chandigarh, Delhi, Jharkhand, Orissa and Punjab.

Officials said owing to operational constraints, marking of potential adulterants would not be carried out at refineries.

Marking would be carried out at terminals/depots thereby avoiding movement of Marked product through common carriers like pipelines and tank wagons.

Marking of kerosene is to be taken up initially and that of other potential adulterants like naphtha and solvents would be taken up subsequently based on study on impact of Marked products on end use/user industries.