Question NW313 to the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy
08 March 2024 - NW313
Mileham, Mr K to ask the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy
Considering that part of the cost of every litre of diesel is a tax levy called the illuminating paraffin (IP) tracer dye levy whose purpose is to curtail the unlawful mixing of diesel and IP and following the recent scandal of 70 petrol stations across the Republic reported to have mixed their diesel with paraffin, how did the dye tracing mechanism borne out of the levy fail to detect the contaminated diesel before it got sold to consumers?
Reply:
Tracer dye is added to Illuminating Paraffin to enable its detection once it is mixed into diesel. The presence of the tracer dye can only be detected through laboratory testing or specialized mobile equipment. The Department collects fuel samples randomly at service stations to test for the presence of the tracer dye, amongst others.
It is precisely this random testing that led to the detection of adulteration when the presence of the tracer dye was detected at the laboratory.