Summoning the minister for commerce and supplies and top brass of the state-owned petroleum monopolist to the committee, the lawmakers chided them for not implementing management and policy reforms that were recommended in the past.[break]
The committee had instructed the government and NOC to adopt an automatic pricing mechanism to make timely adjustments, both upward and downward, so that people do not face the brunt of sudden and hefty price hikes.
It had also asked the government and NOC to introduce different cylinders for household and commercial consumers, and tag different prices on them - higher for industrial clients and relatively cheaper for household clients.
Lawmaker Usha Gurung from Nepali Congress raised questions over NOC´s intention to continue importing petroleum products from Barauni even though this inflicts additional costs on the corporation -- in the form of both higher transportation fare and technical loss.
“There are numerous anomalies in the corporation. Instead of controlling them to check leakage, the corporation has been continuing to hike prices to avoid loss. This is unfair,” she said.
Other lawmakers tagged NOC´s procurement of mobile dispensing pumps as meaningless, as they will barely help maintain supply when dealers go on strike. They also said they smell a rat in the extended procurements that NOC is pursuing of late.
However, Minister for Commerce and Supplies (MoCS) Rajendra Mahato said that no reforms at NOC can compensate the loss it is incurring because of international price hike. “There was no alternative to price hike,” he said, defending the recent rise in petroleum prices.
He also pushed the Ministry of Finance (MoF) to waive value added tax on LPG so that consumers could be spared the price hike. “If MoF waives VAT, we will reduce the price of LPG,” he said.
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