(Original title: Weekly Quality Report | "Stealing Oil" and "Stealing Tax"? Uncover "Secrets" in Gas Stations →)
According to statistics, the number of motor vehicles in China has reached 435 million, and the number of newly registered vehicles has increased by more than 20 million annually for ten consecutive years. To refuel at the gas station has become a necessary daily consumption for many car owners. However, the reporter found in the investigation that some gas stations have secretly taken illegal means to "steal oil", which shortens the weight of the car owners and makes them suffer economic losses unconsciously.
Last May, the Market Supervision and Administration Bureau of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region received a report that a gas station in Baotou City was suspected of cheating and "stealing" oil when filling up the incoming and outgoing vehicles, thus harming consumers. After receiving the clue, the market supervisor immediately carried out law enforcement inspection on the gas station.
Under normal circumstances, the gas station only needs a set of management system, which is installed on the front desk computer for operators to use. But in addition to the front desk computer, the law enforcement officers found another computer in the extremely secret corner of the lounge.
Management system installed on the front desk computer
The wardrobe that looks normal on the surface has an elaborate interlayer at the bottom. The computer is placed behind the interlayer, which can only be found when the wardrobe is removed. So hidden, what secrets are hidden in this computer? The law enforcement personnel carried out many inspections and tests, and finally found the trick.
The bottom of the wardrobe is carefully set with a interlayer, and the computer is placed behind the interlayer
It turns out that the so-called "Beilin service station refueling management system" installed in this computer is actually a cheating software with the function of "stealing fuel" installed by the gas station without permission. The operator of the gas station can set parameters arbitrarily on this cheating software to control the proportion of stolen oil and pay less to consumers.
The picture shows Liu Feng interviewed
Liu Feng, a third level investigator of the Law Enforcement Inspection Bureau of the Market Supervision Administration of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region: When consumers refuel normally, it is usually about 40 to 50 liters. Generally, they will adjust the software to 2 to 3. What does that mean? We will add 50 liters of oil. If we adjust it to 3, we will give 1.5 liters less oil. But for 50 liters of oil tank, this cannot be seen on the oil meter. It is difficult for ordinary people to intuitively find (steal oil).
By installing cheating software, the operator of the gas station can successfully crack or bypass various anti cheating facilities including the self-locking function of the fuel dispenser to achieve remote control and achieve the goal of "stealing fuel". But the consumers are totally unaware.
The law enforcement officers then carried out a metrological verification on the 15 refueling guns in use for the 8 tankers at the gas station. The results showed that the indication errors of the 15 refueling guns at the gas station exceeded the national standard limit by more than three times. Among them, the indication errors of 11 refueling guns exceeded 1%, up to 1.23%, more than four times the national standard limit, that is, for every 100 liters of fuel added, the consumer would be paid 1.23 liters less, It is far beyond the national standards.
The picture shows refueling
The reporter learned that in order to ensure that the fuel volume error is within ± 0.3% of the national standard and protect the interests of consumers, China has strict regulations on the production, use and even maintenance of fuel dispensers.
Liu Feng, a third level investigator of the Law Enforcement Inspection Bureau of the Market Supervision Administration of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region: As a measuring instrument for trade settlement, the fuel dispenser must undergo strict type inspection and verification before leaving the factory; After leaving the factory, the fuel dispenser shall not be changed without the consent or permission of the relevant department. If the motherboard is to be replaced, it must be verified by the verification department and repaired by a qualified enterprise. After the repair, it can only be used after being verified as qualified by the statutory authority.
Moreover, the Verification Regulation of Fuel Dispenser clearly stipulates that the fuel dispenser must have a self-locking function, that is, when the application program and parameters involved in metering in the fuel dispenser are illegally changed, or when the pulse equivalent of the fuel dispenser is abnormal, the fuel dispenser should be locked and cannot continue refueling.
However, the indication errors of the 15 gas guns in this gas station all obviously exceed the national standard limits, but why can they still be used normally?
During the investigation, the reporter found that the gas stations that used the cheating software to "steal oil" were not unique. Just last week, market regulators in Baise, Guangxi, investigated and dealt with two similar illegal acts in one day.
At a gas station in the east of Pingguo City, Baise, after law enforcement personnel arrived at the scene, they first controlled the front desk computer, emergency power supply and fuel dispenser of the gas station.
Law enforcement personnel investigate at the scene
At the front desk of the gas station, the refueling control system installed on this computer looks normal on the surface, but further inspection shows that there is something fishy hidden in it.
After verification by testers, the error rate of the fuel dispenser is+2.05%, about 7 times the national standard limit.
The law enforcement personnel removed the main board of the fuel dispenser
Subsequently, law enforcement personnel removed the main board of the fuel dispenser and brought back computers and other related equipment involved in metering cheating for further data recovery and verification.
In the further investigation, the reporter found that some gas stations, in order to steal fuel, also directly use the hardware of the fuel dispenser.
The law enforcement personnel found that there were doubts about the metering chip in the fuel dispenser
This is the picture taken by the reporter following the Chongqing Comprehensive Administrative Law Enforcement Corps of Market Supervision to conduct on-site law enforcement inspection of the gas station. After careful observation, the law enforcement personnel soon found that there was a doubt about the metering chip in the fuel dispenser of this gas station.
The metering chip is an important part of the metering and control motherboard, which is the core component of the fuel dispenser. Its main function is to monitor and control the fuel volume, flow, pressure, temperature and other parameters of the fuel dispenser, so as to ensure the stability and safety of the fuel dispenser. According to law enforcement officials, once the metering chip is changed, the most direct impact is that the actual fuel volume is inconsistent with the data displayed by the indicating device seen by consumers. In order to confirm whether the metering chip of the fuel dispenser has been tampered with, law enforcement personnel conducted on-site tests.
Huang Jian, Deputy Leader of Product Quality Detachment of Chongqing Market Supervision Comprehensive Administrative Law Enforcement Corps: We will use our own program to activate the fuel dispenser's control board. If the fuel dispenser's computer control motherboard is a motherboard without (cheating) function, our software cannot communicate with it. The principle of the fuel dispenser is that its motherboard can only send data to the computer, and the computer should not send data to the motherboard of the fuel dispenser. Our software can communicate with the motherboard of the fuel dispenser, which must prove that there is a problem with the motherboard.
After linking the external equipment installed with the cheating program with the fuel dispenser, the law enforcement team reproduced the flow of metering cheating in the fuel station by regulating the parameters of the backstage computer of the fuel station, and measured the range of metering deviation that the fuel dispenser can reach.
Field tests have proved that the fuel dispenser originally equipped with anti cheating system can replace the metering chip and manually adjust the error value at will. The error that should be within ± 0.3% can even be adjusted to 20%.
The measurement deviation range that law enforcement officers can reach when measuring the fuel dispenser
The reporter learned in the interview that when the gas station practices metering cheating, in order not to let consumers be aware, the amount of stolen fuel is usually set at about 2% to 5%. In this way, when consumers add a box of 60 liters of oil, the gas station should at least give 1.2 liters less. If the price of gasoline is 8 yuan/liter, consumers should pay at least 9.6 yuan more.
Stealing to reduce fuel consumption in short weight has seriously violated the interests of the majority of car owners. With the in-depth investigation, the reporter found that there are still some gas stations that cheat consumers by passing off low-grade oil products as high-grade oil products.
There is only one oil pipeline from the oil depot to the fuel dispenser in the gas station
When the reporter followed the market supervision personnel of Shaanxi Province to conduct law enforcement inspection on a gas station in Shanyang County, Shangluo City, he found that the gas station claimed to be able to add both No. 92 gasoline and No. 95 gasoline. However, it is puzzling that the gas station has only one oil pipeline from the oil depot to the tanker. How can it transport two different grades of oil products at the same time?
After investigation, this gas station does not have 95 # gasoline at all. The so-called 95 # gasoline marked on the fuel dispenser is actually shoddy, marking the price of 92 # gasoline as similar to 95 # gasoline, deceiving consumers.
The picture shows Duan Zengfu interviewed
Duan Zengfu, Director of the Inspection Bureau of Shaanxi Market Supervision Bureau: According to the statistics of our law enforcement personnel, the involved oil products were more than 13000 liters, and the involved amount reached more than 90000 yuan.
Not only shoddy, but further investigation shows that this gas station is also suspected of cheating in metering by using keyboard input, thus paying consumers less fuel. The identification results of the fuel dispenser motherboard manufacturers show that the monitoring microprocessors used in these motherboards are not original products, and the motherboards and metering programs have been artificially changed.
Duan Zengfu, Director of the Inspection Bureau of Shaanxi Market Supervision Bureau: At present, some refined oil business enterprises, for their own interests, disregard the rights and interests of consumers, take advantage of institutional loopholes and regulatory blind spots, and use high-tech means to tamper with the specifications of fuel dispensers to cheat consumers. This has seriously violated the rights and interests of consumers and is a serious breach of trust.
Whether it is adding cheating software without permission, directly changing the metering chip to "steal oil", or passing off No. 92 gasoline as No. 95 gasoline and passing off inferior gasoline as high-quality gasoline, it has seriously violated the interests of consumers. In the further investigation, the reporter also found that some gas stations not only "steal oil", but also "evade taxes" through various technical means, harming the national interests.
The reporter learned from the investigation that since last year, market supervision departments across the country have increased their efforts to investigate and deal with fuel dispenser metering fraud. In Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Guangdong, Henan, Shandong, Chongqing, Gansu, Hebei, Liaoning and other places, illegal "stealing" of gas stations was found. The reporter noticed that these cases showed that the operators of gas stations were also wantonly evading taxes, which brought great losses to the national tax revenue, regardless of whether they stole oil by installing cheating software or replacing metering chips artificially.
In Inner Mongolia Quality Inspection Institute, professionals showed reporters how a piece of cheating software achieved cheating. The reporter found that this cheating software can not only modify the fuel dispenser metering data to "steal fuel", but also modify the tax control data, so that the fuel dispenser metering and control motherboard does not record transaction values, thus achieving the purpose of tax evasion.
Professionals said that in general, the tax authorities would levy taxes on gas stations according to the transaction values recorded on the fuel dispenser's accounting and control motherboard. Once the accounting and control motherboard recorded little or no actual transaction values, the gas station operator could avoid the VAT and corporate income tax that should be paid.
Liu Feng, a third level investigator of the Law Enforcement Inspection Bureau of the Market Supervision Administration of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region: When the tax officer carries out the inspection, he will check the real transaction volume through the tax declaration port on the fuel dispenser's accounting control motherboard. But now he hides the transaction record through the software, which is the real transaction record, and evades the inspection of our law enforcement officers. In this way, even if we go to check, we can't find the evidence of his hiding and tax evasion.
The picture shows the gas station
According to the public data released by the Inner Mongolia Market Supervision Bureau, the amount of tax involved was nearly 30 million yuan from the nine clues of tax related cases handed over by the bureau to the tax authorities last year alone. On Thursday, the reporter learned from the press conference of the special action for comprehensive control of fuel dispenser cheating held by the General Administration of Market Supervision that since August last year, 1249 cases of fuel dispenser cheating have been investigated and handled nationwide, involving 2.002 billion yuan and 697 million yuan in fines and confiscations. The tax inspection departments of various regions have cumulatively inspected 609 gas stations that used fuel dispensers to cheat and evade taxes.
Fu Yangfan, Deputy Director of the Department of Tax Collection, Administration and Science and Technology Development of the State Administration of Taxation, and First level Inspector: The total amount of taxes, surcharges and fines was 1.961 billion yuan. At the same time, the tax authorities also carried out a special inspection on high-risk gas stations that evaded taxes by extracorporeal circulation, hiding income and other means.
According to the market supervision department, fuel dispensers are highly professional in cheating, and different brands of fuel dispensers even have different cheating software. The high-tech is very obvious, and the operation means are extremely hidden, which makes it difficult to investigate and deal with. In view of these characteristics, on the one hand, the regulatory authorities will intensify their efforts to crack down, and on the other hand, the newly revised national standard of Motor Vehicle Fuel Dispenser will be officially implemented on June 1. The new standard focuses on revising the metering performance, environmental protection performance and anti cheating performance of fuel dispensers, which will effectively prevent fuel dispensers from cheating.
Guo Huanxin, the first level inspector of the Standards and Technology Department of the General Administration of Market Supervision: In terms of anti cheating performance, through technologies such as "unique digital signature of software and hardware", "full life cycle verification of core components", and "national security chip storage", the main responsibilities of each link in the whole life cycle of the fuel dispenser are defined, so as to prevent criminals from tampering with the fuel dispenser and committing cheating to the greatest extent.
The State Administration of Market Supervision said that while revising the national standard of "leak stoppage", the market supervision department will continue to work with the public security, commerce and tax departments to strengthen law enforcement cooperation against illegal and criminal acts of fuel dispenser cheating, and promote multi-party cooperation to jointly deal with fuel dispenser cheating.
The picture shows the interview of the Southern Army
Nan Jun, Deputy Director of the Law Enforcement Inspection Bureau of the General Administration of Market Supervision: In the next step, the comprehensive governance work will continue to be carried out simultaneously, combining special governance with regular supervision and law enforcement, cracking down on the stock and curbing the increment, so that the cheaters have no place to hide and "refuel" for the honest ones.
It is a systematic project to crack down on illegal gas stations. In addition to focusing on daily supervision, the relevant regulatory authorities should seriously deal with complaints and reports from consumers, and should also crack down on the relevant black industry chain. Fuel dispenser metering is not only related to the immediate interests of consumers, but also related to national taxes. Only by maintaining zero tolerance for illegal acts can we purify the order of the industry and safeguard the public interest.
