Serpentine queues of vehicles suddenly appeared at the leading petroleum retailers from early Thursday. Petroleum dealers have attributed the problem to the failure of Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) in stepping up supplies to meet ballooning pre-festive demand.
“With the country going on weeklong Dashain holiday from Friday, people are buying extra fuel to manage their requirements. This led to the sharp rise in the demands of petrol in the market,” said Lilendra Pradhan, an official of Nepal Petroleum Dealers Association (NPDA).
NOC´s Thankot depot had received a demand for 700 KL of petrol on Thursday. However, it could pump out merely 360 KL.
Dealers argued that the rise in demand was imminent given the longer festive holiday this year. “The mess is nothing but an outcome of gross negligence on the part of the NOC,” said NPDA President Saroj Pandey.
NOC, on the other hand, cited three-day public holiday in India, during which imports were stalled from Friday to Sunday, as the main reason. “The three-day holiday affected regular imports. That is why we could not pump out fuel as we had planned,” said Ramesh Koirala, deputy director (distributions), NOC.
Koirala said the NOC would distribute fuel on Friday and Sunday as well to ease supplies. “We will stop distribution only on Saturday and Monday. The distribution will again resume from Tuesday,” he said, requesting consumers not to rush for fuel now.
Apart from the erratic imports, sources at the NOC also attributed the problem to the corporation´s latest strategy to curtail imports and maintain supplies through stock, a step that it took to plug loss that crept in from this month.
“This has left the NOC with limited stock to work with. For instance, its petrol stock at Thankot has depleted to about 700 KL and it is not receiving enough fuel due to people´s rush along the Birgunj-Raxaul customs for Dashain shopping. Hence, it could not supply additional volume of fuel,” he told myrepublica.com.
He even claimed that the problem could last longer than what the NOC claims, especially if the import prices went up on October 1. The NOC is estimated to be losing over Rs 100 million this month.
“Loss incurred by the NOC is the main reason behind fuel shortage. The problem is here to stay unless the government adjusts prices,” he added.
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