Mexico City – If you think paying $3.50 for a gallon of gasoline in the United States is a hardship, consider Mexico, where motorists really get stiffed.
Nine of 10 gasoline stations in Mexico have rigged their pumps to dispense less than what their meters promise, according to federal authorities, who calculated that the practice costs consumers at least $1 billion last year.
Random checks have revealed that the average retailer, a gasolinero, skims a little more than a liter of gas for every 20 sold.
The most audacious outlets would make Al Capone blush. One station in the tourist haven of Acapulco was caught shorting its customers by nearly half the volume displayed on the pump.
The outlet was busted by Profeco, the chief consumer watchdog, which has launched a nationwide crackdown. The agency has mounted surprise inspections, gathering evidence with the help of undercover agents armed with video cameras and vehicles that have tanks that can be removed for analysis.
About 900 stations, more than 10 percent of the nation’s total, have been caught this year.
Profeco is closing outlets and fining owners to force them to clean up their acts. And it plans to post inspection results on the Internet to expose swindlers.
All this is no easy task in Mexico, which is dominated by powerful business interests and which has never been friendly to consumers.
Decades of corruption at the government petroleum monopoly have conditioned Mexicans to expect a soaking at the pumps.
“To be a gasolinero is synonymous with being corrupt,” said Roberto Karam Ahuad, head of fuel verification for Profeco. “It’s like Chicago in the 1930s.”
