The government, having directed the NOC to scale back the prices partially, has shown complete lack of interest in addressing the fuel shortage. In the meantime, student unions, who are still demading complete roll back of the hiked prices argue that smooth supply is state´s responsibility and are unwilling to take the blame for the deepening fuel shortage.[break]
The public continues to bear the brunt as fuel shortage becomes more acute by the day.
NOC officials told Republica that the corporation will increase supply of petorl in the next few days but has no means or measures to increase supply of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) -- the popular cooking fuel -- and diesel, the industrial fuel.
“We are distributing 400 KL [400,000 liters] of petrol every day from Wednesday throughout this week. Given that normal petrol consumption level stands at around 300 KL, we anticipate it to restore normal supply situation in 4 days,” said NOC spokesperson Mukunda Dhungel. The corporation says it will take longer -- as much as 15 days -- to end the diesel shortage.
The situation is still worse in case of LPG -- which has become scarce after the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the sole supplier, referring to its huge losses on the product sharply cut the supply. Over the past one month, IOC supplied just around 300 tons a day, whereas normal demand is around 650 tons a day.
“On special request, it (IOC) has now raised supply to 650 tons a day. Unfortunately, because of scarcity, which prompted consumers to bring out multiple cylinders to refill at the same instance, our daily demand has soared to 1,000 tons,” said Jayaraj Acharya, deputy managing director of NOC.
Given the situation, gas bottlers said LPG supply will ease only if NOC manages to import at least 1,000 tons of LPG every day for 15 straight days. But for that NOC needs to pay cash to IOC.
“Thus, everything boils down to money. If the government provides us money, we will be able to increase import and restore normal supply. Otherwise, we have no resources of our own to do so,” said Acharya.
In the meantime, the alliance of 13 student organizations aligned to as many parties seems adamant on its demand that the government must fully withdraw the hiked prices.
Leaders of student unions told Republica that rather than increasing the prices, there are many other options that the government can use to lower the losses.
"The government should control fuel leakage, end the situation of paying interests to India for receiving oil in credit, cut the number of employees and manage the NOC in a scientific manner," says Pradip Paudel, former president of the Nepali Congress (NC)-aligned Nepal Students Union (NSU).
But NOC officials say that even if the leakage is brought to zero, which is currently at 10 percent, the monthy loss of NOC will still stand at Rs 1.12 billion every month.
Paudel dismissed the claim and stressed that if the NOC manages its task scientifically and stops leakage, the prices of diesel and kerosene could be reduced by 14 percent, petrol by 9 percent and of LPG by 12 to 15 percent.
"What we are saying is that the government should not hike the prices of petroleum products without taking other steps to check the losses," said Paudel.
But the leaders of the Maoist-aligned ANNISU-R and UML-aligned ANNFSU leaders argue that it is government´s obligation to provide the students and the needy with fuels at affordable prices.
"We want the government to provide the petroleum products to student and the poor at lower prices," said Himal Sharma, chief of the ANNSU-R.
Similarly, Vice-chairman of the ANNFSU Nabina Lama said her organization doesn´t care about losses or profits of the NOC and argued the government must provide fuels to the students and the needy at lower prices. "If such a provision is in practice in India, why is it not possible in Nepal?" she asked.
The students are holding protests in front of minister quarters, Pulchowk, on February 5 and and prevent them from entering Singha Durbar and then end their current round of protests by picketing Singha Durbar.
Related story
Helipad to be constructed inside Singha Durbar
