NOC seeks CIAA support to carry out cylinder verification

KATHMANDU:

Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has appealed with the Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) for its support in carrying out cylinder verification.

The appeal by NOC — state-owned petroleum supply monopoly — comes in the wake of gas bottlers refusing to cooperate in cylinder verification that was started since last month, in a bid to fix the scientific quota of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG).

NOC had written to the CIAA urging it to support the move of cylinder verification to manage the smooth supply of cooking gas. Until now, NOC has been fixing quota as per the number of cylinders provided by bottling plants.

When it started verification of the cylinders, NOC had asked the bottling plants to submit the necessary documents, including the value added tax (VAT) bill of cylinders for confirmation of number of cylinders that bottling plants have circulated in the market. Subsequently, the gas bottlers threatened NOC to halt the import and distribution of cooking gas.

There are 55 gas bottlers in the country that claim to circulate 5.5 million cylinders in the market. NOC has been fixing cooking gas import quota as per the number of cylinders that bottlers said was circulated in the market. However, doubts surfaced about the actual number of cylinders when some bottling plants failed to import gas as per the extended quota and the country reeled under severe shortage of cooking gas for a long time.

Hence, NOC decided to verify the number of cylinders as it suspected that the gas bottlers had inflated their figures. Gas bottlers — who used to complain about less import quota — failed to fully utilise the increased quota from 22,377 tonnes to 29,000 tonnes since January this year.

As per a high-level source at NOC, they are preparing to forward the list of bottling plants, along with the details of the ones that are not cooperating.

Bottling plants organised under Nepal LP Gas Industries Association had warned NOC of halting the services earlier. However, they are expected to submit the documents sought by NOC rather than face CIAA, a NOC source said.

According to NOC Spokesperson Mukunda Ghimire, the quota for each bottler will be revised after cylinder verification. “We’ve been verifying the number of cylinders that each bottling plant has circulated and we will adjust the quota accordingly after concluding the verification,” he said.

NOC officials have said that they will cross-verify the number of cylinders with the respective Inland Revenue Offices (IROs), where bottling plants pay taxes. This will help NOC find out the exact number of cylinders.

Moreover, NOC is preparing to amend LPG bylaw to put the mandatory provision to take approval of NOC before purchasing fresh cooking gas cylinders. The existing law allows bottlers to procure cylinders as per their requirements, though they have to inform NOC about it later on.

Source: THT