Around 3.5 million households in Taiwan that use bottled natural gas have been systematically cheated by gas bottling companies over a long period of time, according to Chinese-language newspaper reports yesterday.
The reports, which did not attribute their source, claimed that standard 20kg-capacity propane bottles were often distributed containing just 18kg of gas.
The unlawful profits gained by bottled gas companies can reach NT$100,000 each year, according to an investigation cited by the reports.
Yesterday's reports also indicated that some dishonest business owners had been adding up to two liters of water to each gas cylinder to make up the missing weight, knowing that it is impossible for consumers to tell.
To put an end to the ongoing fraud, officials from the Consumers' Foundation (消基會) yesterday advised consumers to weigh new gas bottles themselves, or alternatively ask the Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection (標準檢驗局) to investigate sources of suspicious bottled gas on a periodic basis.
If proved to have been cheating consumers, business operators will have to pay punitive damages of three times actual losses incurred by customers, the report said.
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