Illegal gas traders use counterfeit brand names

Many gas companies in the south are using counterfeit brand-names and not filling tanks with the maximum volume of gas, according to authorities.

The Viet Nam Gas Association’s Southern Gas Branch said agencies concerned had discovered 17 incidents of illegal sales of gas between November 2009 and October 2010.

The agencies collected 1,202 gas canisters with counterfeit names.

Authorities said many companies had also violated city regulations by underfilling the tanks.

The HCM City Market Management Agency recently discovered another case in which the company had been cheating customers by filling the tanks with less gas and counterfeiting the brandname of Sai Gon Petro.

Market management agents discovered a man allegedly linked to the case and raided his house, where they found a 12-kilo gas canister with the brandname V-gas. The canister had been filled with only six kilos of gas.

They said the man had made and printed a total of 60 kilos of leaflets at his house.

The leaflets promoted a counterfeit gas that used the prestigious brandname Sai Gon Petro.

In another case, police of Binh Thuan Province in central Viet Nam seized a truck carrying 238 12-kg gas canisters and 48-kg gas canisters of the Thai Duong Trading Ltd Company in the province.

Police said all the gas canisters had counterfeit brand names and were not filled to the regulated amount.

The police of Binh Phuoc Province have imposed penalties on Hoang Hai Company, which transported 96 gas canisters without any information about their origin.

About 24 stations in the south are underfilling canisters with gas, and 30 per cent of gas traders are selling counterfeited brand-names, according to the Viet Nam Gas Association’s southern branch. — VNS

Tags: Vietnam gas, Vietnam Gas prices