The Ministry of Industry & Commerce has decided to place inspectors at propane distributors’s sites in order to ensure the fuel is being sold is for domestic and not industrial or other use. They will also be tasked with making sure no price speculation is attempted given propane’s current nationwide scarcity. The Listin Diario’s Bredyg A Disla reports on her visit to six different gas distributors, where she found inspectors on hand at each one. According to them, they represent only the first group of 50 officials being trained to assure that propane is being sold in tanks of 100 lbs or less, and anything over that to be considered as for commercial or industrial use and charged at the higher rate of RD$62 per lb. The fuel’s shortage, according to Disla, has not abated, and the head of the Association of Propane Distributors, William Melo Alcantara, says the situation will continue for at least the foreseeable future, since current demand does not allow distributors to stockpile any propane reserves. A ship with five million gallons of propane is expected to arrive today, but with demand running between 22 and 23 million gallons a month, this is barely enough fuel for one week.