Revisiting fuel adulteration in Tanzania and role of EWURA

In 2000’s stories of adulteration of petroleum products, especially petrol (motor gasoline) and diesel (high speed diesel (HSD), were by then a serious problem.

In their article “Fuel Adulteration in Tanzania and Its Consequences: An Overview” published in the Research Journal in Engineering and Applied Sciences 2 (4) 281-284; Erick Massawe, Hassan Kilavo and Anael Sam (2013) confirm that in Tanzania, adulteration of fuel is rampant because the products of comparable quantities have different prices.

“Fuel dealers do this (adulteration) to make maximum profit from the product, neglecting the damages it does to motor vehicles and other harmful effects to human life. When kerosene is mixed with petrol for example, it can be highly inflammable,” says an expert.

Economists around the world relate this mess with business people, wishing to maximize profit, considering that petroleum products are essential inputs needed in economic activities. Experience shows that the hefty differences in the prices of petroleum products and the easy availability of kerosene, coupled with the fact that it is miscible in petrol and diesel, make fuel adulteration a very ‘reasonable proposition.’

We are all witnesses to the early 2000’s stories of adulteration of petroleum products especially petrol (motor gasoline) and diesel (high speed diesel (HSD), which by then was a serious problem. The mess was caused by these affluent consumer products often adulterated by integrating with cheaper low quality materials having similar physical and chemical properties. “Kerosene is the most important domestic fuel for economically weaker sections of society and hence is heavily subsidized,’’ they write