Widespread diesel adulteration
About one in three samples of diesel were found to be adulterated in a survey by the General Chemical State Laboratory in 2010, while the figure for the fuel market as a whole stands at 17 percent.
According to the survey, which involved 1,838 samples of all types of fuel in the market, mixing diesel with cheaper heating oil is the most common form of tampering.
Representatives of the two refinery groups operating in Greece, Hellenic Petroleum and Motor Oil, will on Thursday host a joint press conference with the association of fuel trading companies to present their proposals regarding ways of combating illegal fuel trading. The phenomenon, besides hurting consumers? finances, their vehicles? engines and possibly their health, creates a considerable gap in public revenues.
Given that the state has no other way of monitoring fuel trading, it is promoting the idea of leveling heating oil tax with that of diesel, while promising to hand out benefits to those who need heating oil and cannot afford it.
