Discrepancies found in Combustiveis United’s gas products

A sampling inspection of the fuels and gas products in the city by an inter-departmental government working group revealed that only one of the seven gas companies in Macau – Companhia de Combustiveis United Limitada – was found to have errors in the labelled filling amount and actual amount of its products, the Macau Economic Service (DSE) announced yesterday.
The inter-departmental group tested nearly 100 fuels and gas products of the seven gas companies between July and December 2014; namely, those of Companhia de Petróleo Oriental Lda, Caltex Oil Macau Ltd., Tak Hing Hong Gás (Macau) Limitada, Mei Fong Gas Co Ltd., Nam Kwong Petroleum & Chemical Co., Ltd. and Shell Gas (LPG) Macau Limited, in addition to Combusiveis United which was found to have errors.
Nevertheless, DSE claimed that only a small number of the samples from Combusiveis United were found to have deviated in its products in terms of filling amount, identifying a discrepancy of between -0.9 KG and 0.5 KG.
The Bureau added that the working group may take such sampling actions in the future, and will continue studying the change of fuel price and related problems.
Meanwhile, legislator Ho Ion Sang filed a written interpellation yesterday, urging the government to initiate laws regulating fair trade to deal with the doubts of the public that the gas companies in the city have been setting prices of fuel and gas products to dominate the market.
‘The Macau Fuel Industry Association (Associação dos Industriais de Combustíveis de Macau) announced in 2013 that they would stop distributing information of fuel price adjustments, while individual companies would start announcing adjustments themselves. As such, they should have more freedom in setting their own prices. However, until now, residents have been reflecting on the time that the gas companies have been announcing adjustments, as well as on the range of similar adjustment,’ the legislator wrote, perceiving the problem of joint price may exist as the products’ prices of these companies are similar when their sources are different.
In addition, he indicated that the price of gas products in Macau did not follow the international price practice of dropping right away, urging the government to conduct appropriate measures to increase the transparency of information about gas prices.
‘Whenever each gas company adjusts their prices, they do not detail the factors driving the adjustment, such as transportation, storage or wage costs… Given the low transparency in the operations of gas companies, the public does not have any ability to bargain on the price but [can only] afford such expensive gas reluctantly,’ he wrote.