NOC officials said the government this time was arranging Rs 2 billion in loan from Employment Provident Fund (EPF). [break]
“The Ministry of Finance (MoF) has initiated the process to arrange loan from the provident fund manager,” said NOC Spokesperson Mukunda Dhungel. Talking to Republica, he further disclosed that Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has resumed normal volume of fuel supply to Nepal from Friday after it was informed about the government´s fresh endeavor for arranging loans. IOC stepped up exports after it was convinced that NOC would be able to pay for the supply without further piling up the dues.
The development has raised hopes of fuel availability getting normal by the coming weekend. However, it has left the issue of fuel pricing and NOC´s loss, which stands at the crux of the supply problem, as it is. This means fuel supply remains as vulnerable as ever, admitted officials.
“The immediate good news, nonetheless, is that the IOC has supplied 2,330 kiloliters of fuel from Raxaul on Friday, raising it substantially from around 1,600 KL till a day ago,” said Dhungel.
It has also agreed to issue as much supply as possible on Saturday as well, as Sunday is a public holiday when no supplies are issued. Following such development, NOC distributed 167 KL of petrol and 365 KL of diesel in the Kathmandu Valley on Saturday. However, it also announced that no distribution would be made on Sunday because of the May Day.
“We will step up supplies substantially from Monday and we expect the petrol scarcity to end by Thursday,” said Dhungel. Diesel shortage, however, might persist for a long time as demand of diesel is high in numerous cities and industrial pockets, and the corporation plans to distribute the fresh consignments evenly to all sectors.
The scarcity has hit consumers across the country since 18 days after IOC slashed supplies to Nepal by one-third citing lack of payment from the NOC following which NOC, too, had to slash supplies by similar proportion. Majority of petrol pumps across the country pulled down shutters hanging ´no petrol´ ´no diesel´ tags. Long queues of vehicles were seen at the pumps and consumers were forced to wait for hours to get limited fuel.
“With a monthly loss of Rs 1.96 billion, there is bound to be scarcity,” said officials at NOC, and urged the government to adjust fuel prices so that existing loss could be checked. Otherwise, they cautioned, consumers will face another spate of shortage once the fuel supply ensured by the Rs 2 billion loan is used up.
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