A letter of NOC dated December 8, 2009 that Republica unearthed clearly says that the five tankers, which made illegal entry into the country and were slapped duty and penalty of 200 percent by Birgunj customs office on Sunday, were issued with a product delivery order (PDO), flouting NOC´s own regulations under Jha´s special initiatives. [break]
The letter further instructs the Amlekhgunj depot to issue further PDOs only after the owner submits report of their epicoat and fittings check. This instruction of NOC head office makes clear that the tanker operator was given PDO prior to conducting fittings and epicoat tests.
Jha, who so far denied NOC flouting its regulations, too admitted that he had instructed for issuance of PDO to Shiva Prasad Ghimire, the wrongdoing tanker owner, without conducting physical and chemical examination of the vehicles. This contravenes with criteria No. 29 of Annex E of NOC Petroleum Transportation Regulations, which makes physical presence of vehicles mandatory for issuing PDO.
Likewise, its criteria No. 3 makes epicoat test mandatory for issuing the PDO. The criteria No. 4 and 10 also makes submission of road permit and tax clearance document mandatory for transporters to get a permission to transport fuel from India.
However, customs office´s investigation had shown that Ghimire´s tankers had ferried in fuel without securing road permit from the Indian Embassy, something which goes against norms of operating Nepali vehicles in the Indian territory.
Existing regulations also demands transporters to pay all due customs and other duties when they enter or re-enter chassis in Nepal after fitting tank, cabin and other body parts on it and report it to NOC for physical tests to acquire PDO.
However, NOC, flouting all these regulations, had issued PDO to the tanker operator while he was moving the chassis out to India for fitting chambers (tank), cabin and other body parts.
Based on this PDO, the tankers then had collected fuel on their way to Nepal from Barauni. This had facilitated the transporter to evade duties because customs office considers vehicle bringing in the fuel as ones that have already completed all prior process of customs clearance.
Referring to the anomaly, which tips off deep-rooted corruption in NOC, Jha admitted that he had issued the PDO based on documents that the transporter submitted. “I admit no physical test of vehicles was done,” he said, accepting mistake on his part.
He, however, refuted charges that he had supported transporters to evade taxes. Jha also denied his malafide intention in the deal. “The shortage prompted me to act urgently,” he clarified.
However, transporters refused to buy his claim. “If he was so much concerned about ending shortage, he would have promptly issued PDOs to all transporters waiting for it,” said Khagendra Bohara, general secretary of Nepal Petroleum Transporters Federation.
Republica caught Bohara at NOC office Wednesday, where he was pushing Jha to issue PDO to his tankers, whose necessary tests and procedures had already been completed. “It is already four days and still the officials do not say for sure when I will get it,” he complained.
Contrary to Bohara´s situation, Ghimire had received PDO on the very next of lodging application.
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