The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China’s economic planner and price regulator, has requested local governments to crack down on petrol stations selling diesel above state-set prices.

A diesel shortage has been spreading across China, leading some wholesalers and petrol stations to sell the fuel at illegally high prices. Xinhua reported that NDRC investigators found stations breaking the law in this way in the provinces of Sichuan, Hubei, Henan, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Liaoning, Jiangxi and Shanxi, as well as in Chongqing municipality. The commission has ordered offending petrol stations to stop overcharging and it requested local governments to fine them.

Among the violators, Yueyuan petrol station in Xichang, Sichuan province, sold No 0 diesel for Rmb9 a litre, compared with the state-set Rmb6.55.

These measures followed others that were aimed at stopping some refiners and diesel wholesalers from overcharging.

“We can't find enough diesel. Ten of the trucks in our company can’t go out to deliver cargo. Our businesses are affected,” said Du Zhanhai, head of a freight transportation company in Tangshan, in the northern province of Hebei.

To relieve diesel shortages, Sinopec and PetroChina are increasing diesel imports.