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The Department of Commerce, Supplies and Consumers Protection (DoCSCP), the market regulator, has expressed its concern over the failure of Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) to ensure proper distribution of cooking gas for the past two months.

Although the NOC has been reiterating that it is supplying adequate amounts of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) to the dealers, a large number of households have been compelled to stay in a queue for a month to get a cylinder of cooking gas. The state-owned NOC, however, has been blaming the panic buying behind the existing shortage of the kitchen essential.

The DoCSCP, in this regard, asked the NOC to provide details of the actual demand and supply situation, bottling plants and reason behind the ongoing shortage. Narahari Tiwari, director of the DoCSCP, informed Republica that the department has asked the NOC to provide the annual demand and monthly breakdown of the supply of cooking gas.

DoCSCP officials said they are concerned about the shortage amid rationing imposed by Indian authorities for LPG supply in the Indian market citing the ongoing Middle East crisis. India is reported to have tightened the LPG distribution to the local consumers.

Tiwari said the DoCSCP has received a number of complaints from the general public regarding the shortage, while the department has also traced a similar situation during its market inspection. According to him, the regulator has also instructed the NOC to present a concrete plan to solve the ongoing LPG shortage.

The NOC, on the other hand, claimed that the domestic market of Nepal will not be affected by the rationing mechanism implemented by the Indian government. NOC’s Managing Director Chandika Prasad Bhatta said Nepal has been getting 50,000 tonnes of LPG every month from India as per a bilateral agreement and there has been no changes in this pact.

As per the NOC’s records, the country’s demand for LPG stands at 100,000-110,000 of cylinders daily. However, the demand has surged to 130,000 cylinders a day in recent days, after domestic consumers started stockpiling the kitchen essential during the election period.

Bhatta said they have asked the LPG bottlers to provide details of distribution to their depots on a daily basis. According to him, the corporation has also instructed the bottlers to give priority to households, while maintaining separate details of LPG sales to commercial outlets and households.