Kathmandu, February 24:

Prime Minister Puspa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ will be the first to receive the much-talked consumer card in his official resident Baluwatar tomorrow morning.

According to Gyaneshwor Aryal, president of Gas Dealers’ Federation, Nepal (GDFN), it will on Wednesday morning go to Baluwatar to hand over the card to the PM, though, the consumer card will be distributed from Budhanilkanth, Bansbari, Lazimpat, Baluwatar, Thamel, Samakhusi, Gangabu, Sorakhutte, Dhapasi and Banasthali in the first phase.

Gas dealers have decided to introduce the consumer card system (CCS) to smooth supply of cooking gas to the around seven lakh consumers.

“Consumers in these places can collect their cards from their respective gas dealers’ depots,” he added.

The total demand for Liquid Petroleum gas (LPG) — popularly known as cooking gas — is 12,000 metric tonnes. There are around 15,000 gas dealers, according to the GDFN.

People have been frequently facing shortage of cooking gas. In order to ensure smooth supply of cooking gas the GDFN is introducing the consumer card system from February 25. The GDFN will provide consumer cards to the dealers with PAN number. For systematic card distribution, it has categorised all the places into five areas and initially it is starting to distribute consumer card at selected places in Kathmandu.

Each family will get one consumer card. Dealers during the card distribution register the consumers’ data in the register with the number of gas cylinders taken from the gas companies and the number of cylinders distributed to the consumer.