Except for the BPC's three depots that do not supply kerosene -- one at Brahmanbaria and two others at Dhaka and Chittagong airports -- all 20 other BPC depots across the country have been supplied with the coloured fuel, said the officials.

A section of businessmen have long cheated customers by mixing kerosene with costlier fuels like octane, petrol and diesel in order to push up the profit margin. The introduction of blue kerosene is expected to check this unlawful practice.

A litre of kerosene costs Tk 17 while diesel, petrol and octane are sold at Tk 20, Tk 33 and Tk 35.

Sources said the newly introduced kerosene would make adulteration difficult, as octane, diesel and petrol will be readily identifiable as impure because they will turn bluish when mixed with kerosene. The normal colour of octane is light red, petrol light orange and diesel straw.

However, blue kerosene was not available in any retail outlet in the city yesterday and retailers said they might have to wait until the present stock of white kerosene in different depots is exhausted.

BPC General Manager (marketing) Mizanur Rahman said they started dyeing kerosene at Eastern Refinery Limited on June 28 and it was distributed yesterday to all BPC depots.

This blue kerosene would be available with agents of the BPC's registered marketing companies, distributors and dealers, and it would not be sold at any filling station, he said.

However, retailers might have to wait for a few days until the previous stock at depots is sold out, he added.

Sources said vigilance teams led by local deputy commissioners would be inspecting the filling stations and any proven case of adulteration would lead to closure of the station concerned, they said.

A BPC press release issued yesterday evening called upon petrol pump owners to cooperate with the customers in examining the colour of fuel. It also urged consumers of octane, petrol and diesel to inform the BPC, BSTI (Bangladesh Standard and Testing Institute) or marketing companies about any case of adulteration.

The country's daily consumption of kerosene is about 1,800 tonnes amounting to an annual consumption of 6.5 lakh tonnes, BPC sources said.

The annual demand of diesel is 20-22 lakh tonnes, petrol 1.75 lakh and octane 1.25 lakh. Total annual demand of different types of fuel is 37 lakh.

UNB adds: Fuels adulterated by mixing kerosene cause damage to engines of motor vehicles, accounting for an annual cost of Tk 500-600 crore in repairs, said a senior official at the Energy and Mineral Resources Division.

"When the financial loss is so high, it will cost only Tk 1-2 crore to make the white kerosene blue," he said.

State Minister for Energy AKM Mosharraf Hossain told the news agency that the drive to check fuel adulteration has begun after achieving a 100 per cent success in checking forgery in measurement by unscrupulous fuel dealers.

To that effect, the officials of the BPC and BSTI have sealed all dispensers at petrol pumps across the country.

The government also plans to introduce transparent pipes at the pumps to enable customers to know the colour of fuels.