Federation of Nepal Petroleum Tanker Operators (FNPTO) had decided to halt delivery of fuel from Barauni refinery in India to Amlekhunj from Sunday, demanding the Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) management to allow them to ferry petroleum products on Barauni-Amlekhgunj route without any restriction. [break]But the program did not materialize after some tanker operators questioned the justification of the strike.
However, petrol tanker operators have said that the protest program was put off due to the protest from Nepal Petroleum Dealers´ Association (NPDA).
“NPDA didn´t support our protest as we had failed to inform them about our program beforehand,” said Shiddilal Shrestha, senior vice-president of the FNPTO.
Tanker operators have been demanding the NOC to resume the issuance of Purchase Delivery Order (PDO) to deliver fuel through Barauni-Amlekhgunj route without any limitation and also increase the transportation fare along that route.
“The demand to issue permission for delivery of fuel from Barauni -- where a recent investigation unearthed different irregularities - can´t be justified. We can´t support people who are found involved in theft of petroleum products, inflicting huge loss to NOC,” a petrol tanker operator told Republica.
Petrol tanker operators in Bara, Parsa and Hetauda that deliver fuel along the Raxaul route were against the protest announced by FNPTO. They said the strike would affect supplies of petroleum products and affect consumers during the Tihar festival.
Shrestha said they had postponed their scheduled program of not collecting fuel from all depots on Monday and Tuesday, taking into consideration the effect that the protest could make during the festive season.
“We decided to postpone the planned protest from Wednesday and sit for talks with NOC management,” Shrestha added.
Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) -- the constitutional anti-graft body -- has directed NOC to limit the supply of petroleum products through Barauni-Amlekhgunj route after a recent investigation by NOC employees revealed that the state-owned petroleum monopolist was incurring an annual loss of Rs 210 million by ferrying fuel from Barauni.
Tanker operators had announced protest following CIAA´s direction.
While delivering fuel from Barauni route, NOC has been paying a higher fare of Rs 1.13 per liter to tanker operators and suffering loss of 135 liters per tanker due to higher temperature along Barauni route compared to other routes.
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