Petroleum dealers go on strike demanding higher commission
KATHMANDU, MAR 04 -
The Nepal Petroleum Dealers’ National Association has decided to stop distributing petrol eum products across the country demanding rise in commission for petrol pumps to address their rising operating cost.
The assciation’s decision has left most of the private petrol pumps closed, forcing motorists and motorcyclists to sit in long queues at gas stations being operated by Nepal Army, Nepal Police and Sajha.
The association has blamed the Nepal Oil Corporation(NOC) for inviting the situation, claiming that the corporation had failed to honour the agreement with petrol eum dealers and to ensure adequate supply of petrol eum products. Other reasons the association pointed out are security risks, donation drive, salary hike of employees, increased interest rate of bank loans, load shedding and inflation.
“If demands including hike in commission are not met, the transactions of petrol eum products will be halted nationwide,” the association said in a press release.
But experts on petrol eum business and consumer rights activists have branded the strike organised by dealers as a drama to hike the prices of petrol eum products and dealers’ commission.
“We decided to go for strike after all our previous efforts to convince NOC were exhausted,” said Prem Lal Maharjan, president of National Consumer Forum. “There is an involvement of NOC itself behind the strike.”
President of Gas Dealers’ Federation Gyanenshwor Aryal also claimed that the strike was being organised at the behest of NOC Managing Director Suresh Kumar Agrawal.
The association had collected more than Rs 8 million from about 2,300 petrol pumps for ‘bribing’ in the name of organising a strike or settling the issue of commission hike. Subsequently, the NOC board hiked the commission by 56 paisa on a litre of petrol , 39 paisa on diesel and 44 paisa on kerosene.
But when the association’s move to collect money for the purpose of bribing came to light, the NOC board suspended the decision to hike commission and formed an inquiry committee.
The team led by the Toya Narayan Gyawali, joint secretary at the Ministry of Commerce and Supply, however, recommended for the timely adjustment of commission making it more scientific.
The NOC has given the Indian Oil Corporation two percent of a profit but the petrol eum dealers here get less than that amount as commission. Given this context, the association collected money from its members. However, as the association failed to ensure the implementation of hike in commission, the contributors are now demanding their money back.
The Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) is also probing the matter. “It is not just coincident that the commission was hiked whenever the association raised the amount,” said an NOC official. “The NOC board will definitely be in controversy if it takes any decision until CIAA concludes its probe.”
NOC’s Acting Managing Director Agrawal said that the corporation would look into the demands of petrol eum dealers. There were talks at the Ministry of Commerce and Supply on Sunday about the demands of petrol eum dealers.
Maharjan said that it was unjust tactics on the part of pertroleum dealers to use ordinary people as shield to fulfill their demands. “The government must take bold steps to tackle strikes in the petrol eum sector,” said Maharjan. Organising strike in the petrol eum sector is illegal as per the Essential Service Act which has a provision of sentencing those involved upto six months in prison.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
