Hyderabad: If you ever suspected of getting lesser than what you paid for at a petrol bunk, chances are that your hunch may have been because several outlets have been booked by the Legal Metrology Department here for exactly that. A Right to Information (RTI) query has revealed that as many as 8341 fuel outlets have been booked for supplying lesser petrol or for charging excess in Hyderabad and over 21000 Telangana from between 2020 and 2025.
The information from the RTI queries was filed by activist Robin Zaccheus with the Legal Metrology Department. The data sought was for the districts of Hyderabad, Nizamabad and Nalgonda districts, for the periods between 2020 and 2025 (upto June). In total, 21718 have been booked by the department alone in those three districts, exposing the massive frauds going on in petro pumps in Hyderabad and outside.
Huge revenue collected in fines from petrol pumps
The RTI data from Robin has also shown that the Legal Metrology Department has been collecting huge amounts in fines for the fraud going on at petrol pumps. Marked under ‘excess price’ and ‘short weighment’ (lesser amount of fuel given instead of full volume), the department has collected over Rs 5 crore from Hyderabad, Rs 3.66 crore from Nizamabad and Rs 4.66 crore from Nalgonda districts.
Reacting to what the data showed, Robin said that it has “blown the lid off massive fuel dispensing frauds”. The RTI information also showed that Nalgonda district also registered 285 short weighment cases in 2024-25 and 262 in 2022-23 at all the major fuel stations – Bharat Petroleum, Indian Oil Corporation, Hindustan petroleum and Reliance.
“Hundreds more cases across Nizamabad and Hyderabad zones year after year. Thousands of consumers are being cheated daily while the department collects crores in compounding fees. Yet the frauds continue unabated. The Government of Telangana and the Legal Metrology Department must immediately : Launch a statewide surprise raid drive on all fuel stations,” he demanded.
The activist also said that the government should install mandatory tamper-proof digital weighing systems with live public display to curb fraud at petrol pumps in Hyderabad and outside. He added that monthly zone-wise fraud reports should be published publicly and that licenses of repeat offenders should be cancelled.
