By Chito Chavez
The Quezon City government will soon issue a prescribed minimum standard of business operation for sellers of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in the city to ensure public safety and avoid being shortchanged by unscrupulous traders.
MB FILE PHOTO/FEDERICO CRUZ
Republic Act 8479, known as the “Downstream Oil Industry Deregulation Act of 1998” and its implementing rules and regulations issued by the Department of Energy and the Department of Trade and Industry, regulates all persons and entities engaged in any activity involving domestic downstream oil industry including the LPG industry.
The unsafe and underdelivery or underfilling of LPG cylinders beyond authorized limits are rampant which have been proven to be harmful practices.
“The continued operation of unsafe and sub-standard LPG retail outlets may expose the public to fire, health and environmental risks, deprive the public the proper quality and quantity of the LPG as purchased, legitimate retailers may not be able to avail of additional sales volume, the city government will not be able to garner additional revenues from licensing fees, local business taxes, and, in effect, will encourage the marketing of LPG from illegal activities,” Ordinance SP 2677-2018 stated.
Under Section 7 of the said ordinance, there shall be a requirement to put up prescribed signage which shall be displayed by the operators of the LPG establishments in strategic locations within the premises of the said establishments.
A price display board shall contain the updated prices for each LPG brand and shall have numeric entries at least six inches in height.
The “No Smoking” signs, “Special Use Permit” must be prominently displayed as other safety signs must be present.
The operators shall suffer penalties for failure to comply with the necessary requirements.
A fine of P3,000 shall be imposed for first time wholesaler offenders while a fine of P5,000 and revocation of business and special use permit will be meted for second time offenders.
For the first offense of retailers, violators shall suffer a P1,500 fine while P3,000 is the penalty for the second offense plus revocation of business permit.
The city government cited the urgent need to enact Ordinance No. SP-2677, S-2018 that prescribes a minimum standard of operation of the LPG industry to eliminate nefarious practices in transporting and selling of LPG.