Govt to arrange loan worth Rs 2 bn for NOC
KATHMANDU, May 7:
The government has decided to arrange Rs 2 billion in loans for Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) from Employment Provident Fund (EPF) in a bid to finance imports and ease supplies.
A cabinet meeting held on Friday took a decision to this effect. “We are arranging loans against government guarantee, as NOC has lost its credit worthiness and no financial institution is ready to provide it loans,” said a source.
Cash-strapped NOC has welcomed the decision and requested the government for early release of the loan amount. “We have been facing difficulty in making payment to IOC as we don´t have money,” said Bachchu Kafle, deputy managing director.
Nonetheless, he said the sole Indian supplier has resumed full quota supply from Wednesday.
According to NOC, IOC is presently supplying 2,400 kiloliters of petroleum products everyday from Raxaul, the main import point. “Other import points too have also resumed normal supply,” said Kafle.
As a result, the corporation has consistently pumped out well over 300 KL of petrol in the Valley over the past couple of days.
Sources said the corporation will still need a few days more to end oil scarcity as it has not yet managed to distribute fuel in all the refilling pumps.
“Almost all pumps were dry since a couple of weeks. And we are facing difficulties in making petrol available to all the pumps due to our infrastructure-related constraints,” said an NOC official at Thankot depot, the main distribution point in the Valley.
The scarcity had hit consumers nationwide, mainly after IOC cut exports to Nepal by one-third due to inability of NOC to pay for normal imports. Subsequently, NOC too had cut distribution throughout the country.
Meanwhile, Indian Embassy in Kathmandu has refuted Ministry of Commerce and Supplies´ (MoCS´) claim that IOC has agreed to provide an extended credit facility. The government had requested India for the credit facility up to Rs 3 billion on Sunday to end scarcity.
MoCS on Tuesday had announced that India has responded to its request positively.
Source: Republica
The government has decided to arrange Rs 2 billion in loans for Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) from Employment Provident Fund (EPF) in a bid to finance imports and ease supplies.
A cabinet meeting held on Friday took a decision to this effect. “We are arranging loans against government guarantee, as NOC has lost its credit worthiness and no financial institution is ready to provide it loans,” said a source.
Cash-strapped NOC has welcomed the decision and requested the government for early release of the loan amount. “We have been facing difficulty in making payment to IOC as we don´t have money,” said Bachchu Kafle, deputy managing director.
Nonetheless, he said the sole Indian supplier has resumed full quota supply from Wednesday.
According to NOC, IOC is presently supplying 2,400 kiloliters of petroleum products everyday from Raxaul, the main import point. “Other import points too have also resumed normal supply,” said Kafle.
As a result, the corporation has consistently pumped out well over 300 KL of petrol in the Valley over the past couple of days.
Sources said the corporation will still need a few days more to end oil scarcity as it has not yet managed to distribute fuel in all the refilling pumps.
“Almost all pumps were dry since a couple of weeks. And we are facing difficulties in making petrol available to all the pumps due to our infrastructure-related constraints,” said an NOC official at Thankot depot, the main distribution point in the Valley.
The scarcity had hit consumers nationwide, mainly after IOC cut exports to Nepal by one-third due to inability of NOC to pay for normal imports. Subsequently, NOC too had cut distribution throughout the country.
Meanwhile, Indian Embassy in Kathmandu has refuted Ministry of Commerce and Supplies´ (MoCS´) claim that IOC has agreed to provide an extended credit facility. The government had requested India for the credit facility up to Rs 3 billion on Sunday to end scarcity.
MoCS on Tuesday had announced that India has responded to its request positively.
Source: Republica
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