• Petro dealers say they will continue their protest and will stop collecting fuel from NOC’s depot if the government report is not convincing

Kathmandu, July 3 The probe committee of the government has found that fuel dealers ‘highly inflated’ the claim of technical loss during transportation of petroleum products — a conclusion that could aggravate the dispute between Nepal Oil Corporation and fuel dealers. A week ago, petroleum dealers associated with the Bagmati Petroleum Dealers’ Association, had submitted a memorandum to the government seeking a hike in loss commission on fuel. Stating that they have been bearing loss of around 99 litres on the purchase of every 4,000 litres of petrol or diesel from NOC’s depots, BPDA — an umbrella organisation representing 300 fuel stations across the country — had threatened to halt fuel supply from July 4. The NOC had then formed a probe committee under the coordination of Director General of Nepal Bureau of Standards and Metrology Bishwo Babu Pudasaini to study the actual loss of petroleum products incurred by the dealers during transportation to resolve the dispute. “We have analysed the fuel supply data from mid-April to mid-May to determine the actual amount of technical loss in fuel that dealers have been incurring. The preliminary report shows that the technical loss incurred while transporting fuel is much less than that claimed by petro dealers,” Pudasaini said. He, however, refused to provide the details of the study report. “All the details will be revealed when we submit the report to NOC in the next four to five days.” NOC has been allowing deduction of 35 litres of petrol and 26 litres of diesel on every 4,000 litres of fuel supplied by dealers via NOC’s oil depots. While NOC has already said that it would adjust the loss commission for dealers as per the recommendation of the probe report of NBSM, petro dealers have said that they will continue their protest and will stop collecting fuel from NOC’s depot if the government report is not convincing. “We have temporarily postponed our protest programme until July 17, as NOC had vowed to increase loss compensation within this time. We’ll not entertain any decision of the government if it refuses to increase loss compensation for dealers in the range of 66 litres to 99 litres on every 4,000 litres of fuel,” Achyut Siwakoti, president of BBDA, said. According to Pudasaini, it was discovered during the course of the study that dealers have been receiving less amount of fuel than that filled in oil depots of NOC. “This is mainly because of faulty calibration of oil tankers,” he said, adding the change in temperature also affected the supply amount, with the problem being more pronounced during summer months. As the technical loss of fuel incurred by dealers was calculated on the basis of fuel purchased by dealers between mid-April and mid-May, when the mercury rises, Pudasaini emphasised on the need to calculate the technical loss in fuel faced by dealers throughout the year ‘to get a clearer picture’.