Writing a letter on Friday, NOC asked IOC to pay for the losses caused over the last 15 days. Figures published by the NOC on its website show that NOC enjoyed Rs 870 million in profit in the second half of September, so NOC has argued that it lost the same amount of profit due to non-supply of fuel by the IOC over the past two weeks.
NOC, stepping on the business to business (B to B) agreement existing between NOC and IOC, sent the letter demanding that the IOC compensate for the financial loss. The agreement states that IOC cannot halt fuel supply to Nepal under any circumstances.
An NOC official requesting anonymity said that NOC was forced to write to IOC as the latter violated the B to B agreement. "We have regularly been corresponding with the IOC in recent days and on Friday we wrote to them demanding compensation for the losses caused due to IOC's non-supply of fuel," the official said.
IOC is the sole supplier of petroleum products to Nepal for the last four decades. But since last two weeks, IOC has been refusing to load fuel on to Nepali fuel tankers citing political unrest on the Nepali side of the border.
It may be noted that India had openly expressed its dissatisfaction over the promulgation of the new constitution last month. The Indian Express even published a list of seven amendments that the Indian government wanted on the new constitution. A few days after the promulgation of the new constitution, Indian border authorities started to stop Nepal-bound cargo vehicles citing political unrest in Nepal.
The loss suffered by NOC however does not come anywhere near the huge losses suffered by the Nepali economy due to obstruction in cargo vehicle movement by India. Nepal's trade with India accounts for over 60 percent of the total trade. Nepal government in the fiscal budget announced in July had targeted to achieve economic growth of 6 percent in current Fiscal Year (FY) 2015/16. But the World Bank on Sunday downgraded Nepal's economic growth forecast to mere 3.4 percent for the year.
Meanwhile, Minister for Commerce and Supplies Sunil Bahadur Thapa said he has no information about the NOC letter to the IOC. He said the supply situation is improving albeit slowly as India allowed dozens of fuel cargo vehicles to enter Nepal on Monday.
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