Enforcers smash subsidised diesel racket in Sungai Besar

PUTRAJAYA: The Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Ministry has smashed a group misappropriating fishermen’s subsidised diesel at a premises in Sungai Besar, Selangor in a raid on March 5.

Its minister Datuk Armizan Mohd Ali (pic) said the site was suspected to be an illegal store and transfer point for subsidised diesel and the enforcement team seized a total of 24,875l of diesel and equipment used for the fraudulent activities.

Three local men aged between 30 and 40 years old, who were suspected to workers at the premises, were arrested and the total seizure is estimated at RM187,350.

“The raid was carried out as a result of intelligence and the syndicate, which is believed to be have been operating for a long time, is a major player in misappropriating fishermen’s subsidised diesel,” he said in a statement Saturday (March 9).

On Ops Tiris, he said the Ministry will submit reports and recommendations based on the findings

obtained during the implementation of the operation to the Agriculture and Food Security Ministry to strengthen the control mechanism for the implementation of the fishermen’s subsidised diesel and petrol subsidy scheme.

“The reports and recommendations are important findings obtained during the implementation of Ops Tiris 1.0 and Ops Tiris 2.0 which began on March 1, 2023, and is continued through Ops Tiris 3.0 now,” he said.

The focus of enforcement on subsidised diesel leakage now is on the implementation of providing subsidised diesel to fishermen

It involves the risk of leakage with the sale of subsidised diesel to ineligible industrial sectors and smuggling to foreign fishermen and as such, the Domestic Trade Ministry will strengthen cooperation with the Food Security Ministry and related enforcement agencies.

Based on enforcement statistics under Ops Tiris 3.0 from Jan 1 to March 6, 2024, Arminzan said a total of 9,093 premises had been inspected across the country with 245 investigation papers opened.

The successful exercise resulted in the seizure of 2.264 million litres of subsidised diesel subsidy worth RM 5.39mil and in the same period, the value of the seizure involving other equipment, vehicles and others was worth more than RM12mil, making the total amount of seizures under Ops Tiris 3.0 for subsidised diesel cases amounting to more than RM17mil. – BK