“Our stock is still pretty low. But we have started receiving more fuel from Indian Oil Corporation (IOC). This enabled us to pump in more fuel in the market,” said Suresh Agrawal, acting chief of NOC. He stated the corporation is making all efforts to bring normalcy in supply by Friday. [break]
The supply of diesel remained scarce for last three weeks. Consumers in the market are also braving shortage of petrol for a week now.
However, after bagging around Rs 2.5 billion in loans from Citizens Investment Trust and Employment Provident Fund, the state-owned petroleum import monopolist on Tuesday received 2,000 kiloliters (KL) of petroleum from Raxaul depot of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC). The import was well over 200 KL than the quantity it received on Monday.
Thanks to higher imports, NOC distributed around 223 kiloliters (KL) of petrol and 425 KL of diesel in the Kathmandu valley from the Thankot depot. It also supplied additional 32 KL of petrol and 48 KL of diesel from the Amlekhgunj depot.
“Of the total petrol supply, 65 KL was distributed among refilling stations run by security agencies and Sajha Cooperative, whereas remaining stock was retailed through private pumps,” said an official at NOC´s Thankot depot.
Likewise, of the total diesel supplied Tuesday, 41 KL was given to institutional refilling stations and 87 KL was distributed to different industries. The remaining stock was retailed through private pumps.
Private petrol pump operators said increased supply eased fuel availability in the market. However, as the supply made on the day was still less than the regular daily demand by around 100 KL, they said restoration of normal supply might take a few more days than the NOC estimate.
“Supply will return to normalcy by Friday only if NOC further steps up the supplies over the next couple of days,” said Saroj Pandey, president of Nepal Petroleum Dealers Association (NPDA).
He even raised doubts over the supplies remaining normal for long, particularly as the government has not yet narrowed down the NOC´s loss - the real reason behind the fuel crisis. NOC officials shared the concern.
As the government remained apathetic to adjusting retail prices of petroleum products in line with the import rates, NOC said its loss is set to jump by around Rs 250 million and touch Rs 1.50 billion a month in January.
At the new import rates issued by IOC on Monday, NOC says its loss remains at Rs 1.07 per liter on petrol, Rs 17.84 per liter on diesel, Rs 7.07 per liter on kerosene and Rs 431.47 on every cylinder (14.2 kg) of liquefied petroleum gas.
The corporation, however, is earning a profit of Rs 12.89 per liter on aviation fuel sold to domestic airlines and Rs 27.50 per liter on aviation fuel sold to overseas airlines.
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