Kathmandu, June 8

Short supply of petroleum products has badly affected normal life for the last one week again.

According to Nepal Oil Corporation, supply of fuel came down almost by 70 per cent after the Indian Oil Corporation cut its supply to Nepal owing to piling up dues of NOC to IOC.

As a result, the poor consumers were compelled to queue in the serpentine line braving the summer heat to get a few litres of petroleum products.

Scarcity of the petroleum products has been looming in the country since long as NOC is lacking fund to pay the IOC on the regular basis.

Ram Krishna Shrestha, a consumer, said that consumers were compelled to stand in the queue in front of the petrol pumps for half a day to get the fuel.

He said the government and the NOC had the responsibility to provide the people needed fuel but they were not sincere in addressing the plights of the consumers.

"Fuel shortage has affected the daily routine of consumers like me," he said. He also urged the government to immediately solve the problem.

Stating that the crisis of the petroleum products has been common and the government was unable to find a permanent solution to the problem.

Saroj Pandey, former president of the Nepal Petroleum Dealers’ Association (NPDA), said that scarcity of the petroleum products would hit hard normal life if the government and the corporation did not solve the problems soon.

The statement of the NOC that supply of fuel was cut almost by 70 per cent had encouraged the businessmen to create an artificial shortage.

"Such notice will also encourage the consumers to stock fuels unnecessarily," he said.

He asked the government and the NOC to readjust the prices of the fuel and provide relief to the poor consumers. He said that the NOC could increase the prices of diesel and cooking gas and reduce the prices of petrol.

Pandey said that the government would also adopt the multiple VAT system in the petroleum products which would help reduce the loss of the corporation.

He said that the corporation was distributing fuel to the government petrol pumps during the crisis, which had forced the consumers to spend more hours sanding in queues.

He asked the NOC to distribute the fuel to the private petrol pumps too as priority as it would help the consumers get the fuel in shorter time.

The corporation has remained effortful in importing fuels by requesting the IOC to resume the supply, said the Officials of the NOC.

The corporation has decreased the supply of fuels to 700 KL a day in recent times from 2,200 KL a day in normal period.