Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov called for urgent measures imposing stricter control on the trade with fuels after an inspection last week established serious violations by petrol stations.

Borisov set out a deadline until Friday for the Commission for Protection of Competition (KZK) to issue a statement whether there is a cartel agreement between the petrol stations in the country.

At the beginning of the regular government meeting on Wednesday, the prime minister revealed shocking information on the quality of petrol in Bulgaria, the Bulgarian National Radio reports.

A joint inspection of the State Agency for Metrological and Technical Surveillance, the Interior Ministry, the National Revenue Agency (NAP) and the Customs Agency established that a lot of the measurement systems at petrol stations have been manipulated.

Many petrol pumps have been sealed improperly, which allowed for the seals of the metrological control to be easily removed.

Borisov said that there were some petrol stations, where 40 % of the fuel was actually turpentine and there were high levels of sulphur in it.

There were also inconsistencies between the physical volume of fuels and the volume measured at the petrol pumps.

Borisov expressed discontent with the work of the two agencies under the authority of the Economy Ministry, which were responsible for the control of fuels.