Multiple gas dealership fuels irregularities
KATHMANDU:
The market is witnessing shortage of cooking gas for all the wrong reasons. “Dealers are illicitly exchanging the cooking gas cylinders of one company with others just to earn Rs 300 commission in a cylinder and creating artificial shortage,” according to Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC).
“Current shortage of Liquefied Petroleum gas (LPG) — popularly known as cooking gas — will not remain, if the system of selling gas cylinders of many companies by a dealer will be scrapped by NOC,” the NOC spokesperson Mukunda Prasad Dhungel said.
The state oil monopoly is really surprised at the shortage of cooking gas since the festive season is around the corner, he said, adding that the NOC is suspecting that the gas dealers are hoarding the cylinders.
The dealers are hiding gas cylinders to sell it at higher price during festivals, Dhungel claimed, adding that the current cooking gas shortage is completely artificial. He even accused the gas dealers of creating deliberate rumours of scarcity to promote black-marketing.
Market monitoring may miss to monitor all the dealers and they are taking advantages of government weakness, he claimed. The monitoring group had recently raided the Kantipur Cooking Gas Store in Kathmandu and revealed its involvement in black marketing of cooking gas, he said, adding that the incident proved that the tendency of hoarding by dealers is on rise.
The Department of Commerce had on September 29 recommended the Nepal Oil Corporation to scrap dealership of Kantipur Cooking Gas Store that was not providing gas cylinder despite having enough stock. The monitoring team had found 36 cylinders of Nepal Gas, 23 cylinders of Shree Krishna gas and one cylinder of Narayani Gas in its store. However, gas dealers are refuting the allegations.
“It is baseless,” secretary of Gas Dealers Federation of Nepal Cha-ndra Thapa said, adding that the reason of cooking gas shortage is the slump in import quantity.
NOC loss to rise
Indian Oil Corporation has sent a new price list to the Nepal Oil Corporation on Saturday. According to the new price list, Nepal Oil Corporation will incur Rs 829.5 million loss every month. The corporation was incurring Rs 705.8 million loss according to September 16 price list of Indian Oil Corporation. The state oil monopoly will incur loss of Rs 2.26 on a litre of petrol, Rs 11.09 on a litre of diesel and Re 0.99 on a litre of kerosene, according to revised price list of IOC. Similarly, the state oil monopoly also incurs Rs 305.64 loss on a cylinder of cooking gas. However, it will gain profit of Rs 19.55 and 19.60 on a litre of Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) domestic and international, respectively. The corporation has projected the consumption of 16,000 kilo litre (kl) petrol, 55,000 kl diesel, 4,000 kl kerosene, 2,000 kl ATF (domestic), 6,000 kl ATF (international) and 1,100,000 cylinder of cooking gas every month in the domestic market.
Source: THT
The market is witnessing shortage of cooking gas for all the wrong reasons. “Dealers are illicitly exchanging the cooking gas cylinders of one company with others just to earn Rs 300 commission in a cylinder and creating artificial shortage,” according to Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC).
“Current shortage of Liquefied Petroleum gas (LPG) — popularly known as cooking gas — will not remain, if the system of selling gas cylinders of many companies by a dealer will be scrapped by NOC,” the NOC spokesperson Mukunda Prasad Dhungel said.
The state oil monopoly is really surprised at the shortage of cooking gas since the festive season is around the corner, he said, adding that the NOC is suspecting that the gas dealers are hoarding the cylinders.
The dealers are hiding gas cylinders to sell it at higher price during festivals, Dhungel claimed, adding that the current cooking gas shortage is completely artificial. He even accused the gas dealers of creating deliberate rumours of scarcity to promote black-marketing.
Market monitoring may miss to monitor all the dealers and they are taking advantages of government weakness, he claimed. The monitoring group had recently raided the Kantipur Cooking Gas Store in Kathmandu and revealed its involvement in black marketing of cooking gas, he said, adding that the incident proved that the tendency of hoarding by dealers is on rise.
The Department of Commerce had on September 29 recommended the Nepal Oil Corporation to scrap dealership of Kantipur Cooking Gas Store that was not providing gas cylinder despite having enough stock. The monitoring team had found 36 cylinders of Nepal Gas, 23 cylinders of Shree Krishna gas and one cylinder of Narayani Gas in its store. However, gas dealers are refuting the allegations.
“It is baseless,” secretary of Gas Dealers Federation of Nepal Cha-ndra Thapa said, adding that the reason of cooking gas shortage is the slump in import quantity.
NOC loss to rise
Indian Oil Corporation has sent a new price list to the Nepal Oil Corporation on Saturday. According to the new price list, Nepal Oil Corporation will incur Rs 829.5 million loss every month. The corporation was incurring Rs 705.8 million loss according to September 16 price list of Indian Oil Corporation. The state oil monopoly will incur loss of Rs 2.26 on a litre of petrol, Rs 11.09 on a litre of diesel and Re 0.99 on a litre of kerosene, according to revised price list of IOC. Similarly, the state oil monopoly also incurs Rs 305.64 loss on a cylinder of cooking gas. However, it will gain profit of Rs 19.55 and 19.60 on a litre of Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) domestic and international, respectively. The corporation has projected the consumption of 16,000 kilo litre (kl) petrol, 55,000 kl diesel, 4,000 kl kerosene, 2,000 kl ATF (domestic), 6,000 kl ATF (international) and 1,100,000 cylinder of cooking gas every month in the domestic market.
Source: THT
