The corporation has issued a circular to all its depots to slash supply by around 30 percent, a move which officials said was unavoidable as Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the sole supplier of fuel to Nepal, has curtailed supplies by 33 percent from Tuesday.[break]
As a result, petrol pump operators in the valley and other cities said their refilling stations have gone dry. In the valley, long queues of vehicles were seen at the few pumps that kept the supply going with what was left in their stock.
Some of the corporation officials attributed the scarcity to dealers´ strike on Sunday and public holidays on Tuesday and Thursday -- when NOC did not distribute fuel in the market. However, sources said fuel shortage would continue if the government did not take concrete decision about paying for the imports.
Even NOC Chief Digambhar Jha agreed that the future of fuel supply depends on how government responds to its call for loans. “We were banking on the government promise to provide us Rs 1.5 billion in loans to maintain supplies. However, it gave us only Rs 500 million. We could not settle the outstanding dues with the IOC to get normal volume of supply,” said NOC chief Digambhar Jha.
He informed Republica that corporation received just 2,400 kiloliters of fuel from India, whereas it was importing as much as 4,200 KL of fuel a day until a week ago.
The rise in demand has been attributed to the expansion of auto market and growing use of diesel to run power generators.
“We have stock, but it is barely enough to bridge demand-import deficit for 15 days. Hence, we have decided to slash supplies, until the government assures us on ways to finance future import,” said a source.
Although the government provided Rs 3 billion to the cash-strapped corporation over this fiscal year, it has failed to secure adequate import due largely to mounting loss, which has presently jumped over Rs 1.76 billion a month.
“There are only two ways to address the problem: either the government finance NOC´s import or let it adjust prices in line with international trend. However, government has not accepted both the proposals,” said the source, and added that days ahead could be tougher for consumers.
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