NEW DELHI/LUCKNOW: The racket of using electronic implants to short-change consumers at petrol pumps could be worth as much as Rs 250 crore annually, if one assumes that 10% of the motor fuels sold in the country are being under-delivered by unscrupulous dealers.According to oil ministry data, as many as 3.5 crore consumers buy petrol and diesel worth Rs 2,500 crore a year from 59,595 petrol pumps of state-run fuel retailers. With such a big pie at stake, people familiar with the fuel retail business said the racket busted by the Special Task Force of the UP police on Friday could be the tip of an iceberg. The STF raided seven petrol pumps where implants were being used to manipulate fuel deliveries.While the customers were paying for the quantity shown by the dispensers, they were getting 10-15% less fuel. An indication of the magnitude of the problem came from the prime accused, Ravinder, who confessed to having installed implants on 1,000 dispensing machines at various petrol pumps in UP. The STF has set up a team to probe the matter. Five more petrol pumps were raided in the state’s Moradabad district and two engineers detained late on Saturday.On his part, oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan congratulated the UP STF for busting the racket and said strict action will be taken against the guilty. What is worrying is the use of technology for manipulating sales at outlets, which is perhaps a first and poses a new challenge for oil marketers who believed that replacing mechanical dispensers with electronic ones would check under-delivery.While underdelivery was a problem during old days, adulteration became the main focus after the advent of the new machines. Ironically, it was in UP’s Lakhimpur Kheri that a young field officer of IndianOil, S Manjunath, was killed by the adulteration mafia in November 19, 2005.Industry insiders said manipulation of dispensing machines could be more widespread than is believed. This is because nearly all pumps now have electronic dispensing machines which are vulnerable to such manipulations due to easy availability of technology.“There is need to increase the security of the dispensing machines, perhaps through better encryption and other measures,” a senior marketing executive working with one of the oil companies said. But the truth is automation itself is not working on the ground because it is not seamless. “Fuel quantity in a tanker is still measured with a dip-stick before decanting into pump's storage,” one dealer said.