The drivers said they will resume imports and distribution of fuel from Saturday, ending the four-day impasse. "We have agreed to pay Rs 3,700 in salary to tanker drivers and Rs 1,500 to co-driver," Siddhi Shrestha, vice president of Nepal Petroleum Transporters´ Federation (NPTA), told myrepublica.com.
So far, the tanker owners were not paying salary to their staff and the drivers too had not demanded for the same, as they were freely reaping benefit of price difference between diesel and kerosene. However, they strongly started voicing out for the facility after the government closed the price gap.
The tanker drivers had launched a strike demanding minimum salary, parking facilities in Raxaul and Kathmandu, end undue hassles to drivers and tanker from Indian police and revise technical loss limit during transport.
During negotiations on Friday, NOC agreed to review its cushion on loss in volume that results from shrinking of oil while transporting from a hotter to a colder place.
For the revision, it is sending a technical team including a representative of NPTA to Jammu and Kashmir to conduct a study and make recommendations within a week. "We chose Jammu and Kashmir because NOC officials said temperatures in those places stand very close to Raxaul and Kathmandu respectively," said Shrestha.
Presently, NOC´s loss standard says that volume of petrol drops by 1.06 liter per kiloliter when temperature drops by 1 degree centigrade. It tags any loss beyond that as a leakage and slaps fine on tanker owners, who ultimately make their drivers to pay for it.
The drivers had argued that legitimate limit of shrinkage, as fixed by NOC, was lower than international standard and it has been forcing them to pay fines ´injudiciously´.
As for the other demands like parking facilities in Raxaul, Birgunj and Kathmandu, NOC said it would meet the demand in the nearest future.
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