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KATHMANDU, Feb 24: The argument between the Ministry of Supplies and Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) whether or not to let the controvercial private company, Birat Petroleum, sell its fuel at its own proposed price of Rs 155 per litre is going to hit consumers. "NOC top officials have been for letting Birat sell its petrol at Rs 155 per liter," according to a source at the ministry who did not wish to be named.
According to him, NOC is not easing the fuel supply partly because it wants to compel consumers to buy Birat petrol at Rs 155 per litre. "If NOC eases the supply, consumers will buy NOC petrol at Rs 99, and no one will pay Rs 56 more for Birat petrol."
Birat Petroleum has brought another 132.665 kiloliters of petrol to Nepal and has asked the government to let it sell at Rs 155 per liter.
The private company has submitted an application at the Department of Commerce and Supply Management (DoCSM), urging it to manage the distribution mechanism for the imported petrol. The company has stated Rs 155 per liter as the cost of the petrol -- including import and profit, according to its application.
According to the Department of Customs (DoC), Birat brought petrol of this volume some four days ago. DoC had then sent a sample of the petrol to Nepal Bureau of Standards and Metrology (NBSM) for quality tests. Birat's petrol is now in the last stages of hitting the market as NBSM has already approved its quality.
As of now, the private firm is learned to have been lobbying different government bodies to help it distribute the petrol in the market. “The company has submitted a proposal to us asking us to manage the petrol pumps for distributing its petrol,” a DoCSM official told Republica on condition of anonymity. “It has proposed to us to sell the imported petrol at Rs 155 per liter.”
Although petrol is available in the market at Rs 99 per liter and the government has been saying that the supply from India is increasing, it appears inclined still to allow Birat to sell at its own rate through NOC's dealers. Asked about the distribution mechanism and the rate for Birat petrol, Gopal Khadka, managing director of NOC, said, “Ask the importing firm about the distribution mechanism, not NOC.” An irritated Khadka added, “Any private firm has been allowed to import and sell fuel at its own rate through its own mechanism.”
During the Indian blockade, NOC had unlawfully awarded Birat Petroleum a supply contract for temporarily importing petroleum products for the domestic market. After a series of criticisms, the private firm had unilaterally terminated the contract signed with NOC. Later, the firm brought in almost 97,000 liters of petrol on its own but with support from NOC, and distributed all the petrol through NOC's own dealers at the much higher rate of Rs 190 per liter.
Consumer activists say that NOC and other government bodies are into organizational black marketing of petroleum products. “At a time when supply has increased, allowing a private firm to import and sell fuel at a much higher rate is a clear act of black marketing,”said Madhav Timalsina, president of Consumer Rights' Investigation Forum.
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