Government runs out of gas.

The operating licences of 52 gas bottling plants have not been suspended though they are not abiding by the government’s instruction to expand their storage capacity.Erratic supply from India and increased demand have long been cited as the prime reasons for prolonged shortage of liquefied petroleum gas, popularly known as cooking gas, time and again. But as it turns out, the main reason for the scarcity is that the government seems to run out of gas when it comes to properly enforcing the existing law.

Under the jurisdiction of Export and Import (Control) Act, 1957, the government had issued a notice through Nepal Gazette on June 8, 2005, which had defined the required infrastructure to run gas bottling plants in the country. As per the law, bottling plants should meet storage capacity of at least 200 tonnes within five years from the date of operation. Similarly, they have to maintain 20 per cent of the mentioned capacity as stock. Failing to do so, as per the law, the government can suspend the operating licences of the bottling plants.

However, of the 55 bottling plants operating in the country, only three — Nepal Gas (500 tonnes), Salt Trading Corporation (200 tonnes) and Koshi Gas (500 tonnes) — have met the set criteria of expanding their storage capacity. Consequently, a perennial shortage of cooking gas has become a regular phenomenon in the country whenever there is even a minor obstruction in import of cooking gas.

The country has also been facing the crisis of LPG every winter season, when the consumption of cooking gas shoots up but bottlers keep failing to import the assigned quota.

More interestingly, the market regulator continues to be mum about the storage facility criteria.

Share on Google Plus

About Sagar Pathak

This is a short description in the author block about the author. You edit it by entering text in the "Biographical Info" field in the user admin panel.