The consumers' association, Facua, has reported twelve gasolineras to the police for allegedly increasing fuel prices on the eve of the discount measures coming into force.

The Central Government had taken the measure to alleviate rising fuel prices by imposing a 25-centimo discount on a litre of fuel to be applied at the pump. The State foots the cost of 20 centimos and the gasolineras, five centimos.

These twelve gasolineras, according to Facua, (Andalusian Federation of Consumer & Users Associations) put their prices up by at least five centimos immediately before the measure came into affect, effectively, making the consumer pay the part that they should have paid.

It should be pointed out that Andalucía has 230 service stations, scattered over the region and these twelve ‘bad eggs’ only represent Granada’s ones.

However, Granada is the province with the second highest number of gasolineras that have been reported. It could even take first place if you equate the population to the number of service stations available.

The total number of service stations that have been denunciadas in the whole of Andalucía is 65, meaning that one in five is in Granada. Sevilla takes first place, however, with 17 gasolineras reported (one in four +/-). As for the rest of the provinces: Córdoba has eleven, Jaén, nine, Cádiz, five, Huelva, four and Almería, four.

So, which petroleum companies had the most cases? Repsol has 26, ES Carburantes, twelve, Farruco SA ten, Cepsa, eight, Galp seven, MaxOil six and BP, four.

Editorial note: Firstly, for our non-native English speakers, the article title is an expression that loosely means ‘to do something deceitful.’ Secondly, we often use Spanish words, such as ‘gasonlineras’, as the British call them garages or petrol stations and the Americans, gas stations, but gasolinera is understood by everybody who lives in Spain, no matter where they are from.

(News: Andalucia)