Dealers issue 25,000 consumer cards

KATHMANDU, MAY 28: 

Gas Dealers’ Association of Nepal has distributed 25,000 consumer cards till date. The association said that it will soon forward the record to Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) for its approval.

Nepal Oil Corporation has informed that the distribution of consumer cards is going on, said spokesperson at the Ministry of Commerce and Supplies Deepak Subedi. “The corporation has pledged to complete the card distribution by mid-June.”

However, vice president of Gas Dealers’ Association of Nepal Maheshwar Kumar Shrestha said that NOC has yet to complete the verification process of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) dealers.

A total of 3,000 dealers had taken forms for the verification process, he said. “Of them, 2,000 dealers have returned the forms at the office of the association and 1,777 have been verified by Nepal Oil Corporation.”

The association has provided 100,000 consumer cards to dealers for distribution, he said, adding that most of the verified dealers have yet to bring the cards for distribution.

The Ministry of Commerce and Supplies has asked NOC to maintain a database of consumers after completing the distribution of consumer cards, according to spokesperson Subedi. 

However, the ministry is not satisfied with the working style of the corporation, claimed a source at the ministry. It has been more than three months since the ministry had directed Nepal Oil Corporation to collect the data of industrial and domestic use of LPG, he said. “NOC has failed to collect the data so far.”

He also had doubts on whether Nepal Oil Corporation would be able to complete the distribution by mid-June. The corporation had started distributing consumer cards from April 17 deputing Gas Dealers’ Association of Nepal as the authentic agency for the task.

NOC yet to receive Rs 2bn

Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has yet to receive Rs 2 billion though the government had pledged to provide the amount in the beginning of May. “The corporation has to pay an outstanding due of Rs 1.91 billion to its sole supplier Indian Oil Corporation,” said acting managing director of NOC Suresh Kumar Agrawal. However, NOC has been supplying petroleum products according to the market demand, he added. NOC supplied 12,000 kilolitre petroleum products on Sunday which is sufficient to meet the demand of Kathmandu valley, he said.

Source: THT