The long lines of hundreds of people have started to a make appearance, once again, in front the petrol stations in Kathmandu. The reason: Shortage of petrol. The ‘no petrol’ sign that hangs on petrol pumps has become as much a part of the Valley’s scenery as the dark streets, piles of garbage, uncontrollable traffic and dust. Hapless consumers concerned about their mobility stand in line for hours losing their precious time which could have been better utilized on other productive undertakings.
The petroleum shortage has not only increased the queues in front of the petrol stations. It has brought about terrible traffic jams on our narrow roads, has given an unfair excuse for the taxi drivers to raise charges, and public transports are exorbitantly extracting fares further causing unnecessary hassles for the denizens of the Valley,
The hardest hit sector of the ongoing fuel crisis is the industrial sector which is already burdened to bear the 14 hours of load shedding. Because of the shortages of diesel to which fuels the generators, the industries are forced to reduce their production, thereby causing a direct impact on the country’s floundering economy. It almost looks like the political stakeholders are intentionally choosing to ignore the grave repercussions the constant deficit of the everyday commodities cause by burying their heads in the sand.
The government, in its attempt to cushion itself from faulty oil policies, announced, two weeks ago, that it would administer precious state resource to subsidize oil supply. We strongly condemned the move subsidizing Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC). Such a move, we believe, might lessen the problem momentarily but in the long run it will have grave impacts on the livelihood of the poor, rural Nepali who are continually deprived of basic health and educational services and ultimately the country’s economy. Using resources allotted for development to finance oil supply is a sign bad economic policy.
However, the rotten cherry on an uncooked cake is the fact that despite the announcement of Rs1.5 billion to finance the fuel imports two weeks ago, consumers still have to wait for hours in line for fuel bearing the heat and dust. The announcement has made no difference to the hardships consumers have to face on an everyday basis. It seems as though the government has chosen to go into relax mode noticing that neither the opposition nor the civil society have raised any concern regarding this issue.
Hence, it is dilly-dallying the process of addressing this shortage immediately. If the Jhanath Khanal led government wants to continue the initial image of finally restoring the political stability it projected, it needs to act fast and avail oil to the consumers. Announcement of the subsidy, which was a wrong step to start with, and the ongoing scarcity may lead people to be disillusioned and lose faith in this government again.