Call for separate policy to regulate LP gas industry

KATHMANDU, August 1:

The Industry, Commerce, and Consumer Welfare Committee of the parliament on Sunday said that the country
needed a separate legal policy to regulate the LP gas industry.

The committee called on the government to endorse a separate policy to regulate the petroleum sector. Lack of strong and separate legal provisions for the LP gas industry and the entire petroleum sector had hit customers time and time again, it said. Committee members said that the endorsing of such a policy would ensure the smooth supply of LP gas in the market.

Addressing the committee's meeting on Friday, its president Bhisma Raj Aangdambe said that consumers have been time and again

problems in the supply of LP gas and other petroleum products due to a lack of clear government policies related to those consumers' issues. "The Government has to endorse a policy to regulate the LP gas industry so that the short-supply problem can be resolved," Aangdambe said.

Similarly, Narayan Bahadur Karki, the chairman of the Supply and Consumer Welfare Sub-committee under the parliament's Industry, Commerce, and Consumer Welfare Committee emphasized the importance of regular and effective market monitoring from the government side to control arbitrary shortages of LP gas.

Pointing out that petroleum imports have been playing a big role in increasing the country's trade deficit, other committee members and lawmakers said the government should think of ways to reduce import of petroleum products.

Source: Republica