State Tests Show Petrol Ethanol Levels Exceeding Prescribed 20 Percent Limit

General19 sourcesNov 7, 2026

SplitFactual rigor 55/100

The Story

Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi cited a Karnataka government testing report on Saturday, alleging that fuel retailers are dispensing petrol with ethanol blends well above the mandated 20 percent threshold.

State-run oil marketing companies (OMCs), including IOCL, HPCL, and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), issued a joint statement rejecting Karnataka's findings. The companies maintained that all E20 petrol distributed across India complies with Bureau of Indian Standards specification IS 17021. They stated they had not received retention samples, individual retail outlet records, or formal laboratory documentation.

Karnataka Minister Rizwan Arshad defended the state's laboratory tests and accused the oil companies of a conflict of interest, stating that company testing reports omitted measured ethanol percentages. The tested samples came from fuel outlets across Bengaluru, Kolar, Chikkaballapura, Bengaluru Rural, Ramanagara, Mangaluru, and Tumakuru. Following the Karnataka report, the government of neighboring Kerala directed its Civil Supplies Commissioner to initiate inspections of petrol supplies.

What they agree on

Sources agree that Karnataka's state testing of petrol samples revealed ethanol concentrations exceeding the mandated 20 percent limit, reaching up to 31.2 percent.
All outlets report that state-run oil marketing companies IOCL, HPCL, and BPCL formally rejected the state's claims.
Reporting confirms that the central government and fuel companies questioned the state's testing methodology and lack of shared retention samples.

Where they split

The Hindu led its reporting with political statements from Rahul Gandhi accusing the government of fuel theft, while business outlets like LiveMint focused on OMC technical compliance with BIS IS 17021 standards.
News18 highlighted Minister Rizwan Arshad's specific accusations that oil company laboratories omitted ethanol percentages from their own quality reports.
LiveMint detailed the exact regional breakdown of fuel testing across seven Karnataka districts, whereas other sources summarized the findings generally.