The Kenya Petroleum Refinery Limited plant in Mombasa. Closure of the facility affected monitoring of imports. PHOTO | FILE
By Stellar Murumba
In Summary
- All bulk petroleum imports will from January 15 be subjected to compulsory checks by the agency’s appointed surveyors.
Petroleum products shipped into the country face
double inspection, both at source and on arrival, as the Kenya Bureau of
Standards (Kebs) moves to tighten the noose on retailers of fake items.
Managing director Charles Ongwae said all bulk petroleum
imports will from January 15 be subjected to compulsory checks by the
agency’s appointed surveyors.
At the moment, the agency relies only on its random
checks performed at service stations to confirm compliance with quality
and taxation issues.
“Bulk petroleum products, specifically fuels, are
some of the commodities targeted for inspection for quality and quantity
both at source and on arrival into the country,” said Mr Ongwae in a
notice.
“Kebs has, therefore, developed the operational manual to guide the inspection of these products.”
The detailed petroleum products inspection
operations manual defines quality requirements for each category of
petroleum product.
In November, Kebs jointly published a directive
with the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) indicating that all imports into
the country be inspected at source markets and issued with certificate
of conformity (CoC) for compliance.
The rules came into force on December 1 for all other imports.
The two agencies said the new rule was effected “in
order to protect the safety and health of Kenyans in addition to
securing tax revenues (with) key concerns that have arisen in the past,
including cases of cargo under-valuation”.
Previously, the Kenya Petroleum Refineries Ltd inspected bulk petroleum imports up to September 2013 when it closed its doors.
Under the new changes, the Kebs-appointed agents
will check, supervise and seal container load shipments of certified
goods, indicating seal numbers in the respective CoCs.
Despite the Kenya Pipeline Company having a
laboratory for testing petroleum products, Kebs, which is a member of
the Energy Regulatory Commission’s (ERC) programme on quality, is
mandated to handle the quality testing for purposes of standardisation
in the inspection processes.
This has been found necessary in order to curb
importation of substandard and illicit goods to protect the safety and
health of consumers.
Mr Ongwae said presentation of the CoC shall be a
mandatory document for clearance of the goods under the scheme for both
the Kebs and KRA.
No comments :
Post a Comment