KATHMANDU, MAY 3
The bottlers of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) are urging consumers not to resort to panic-buying and hoarding, saying there is no shortage of cooking gas in the country.
Krishna Bhakta Shrestha, general secretary of Nepal LP Gas Industries Association, said there is no problem with supply of LPG at the moment, even if some consumers might be having to wait a bit longer to get their cylinders refilled.
According to President of National Consumer Forum Prem Lal Maharjan, many dealers are on the lookout for opportunities to make a quick buck and with the rumours of the gas price shooting through the roof in the coming weeks, they (gas dealers) might have tried to create artificial shortage to bilk consumers.
Recently some gas dealers were found to have haphazardly marked up the price of LPG by creating an artificial shortage of cooking gas in the market, capitalising on the delay in collection of empty cylinders by bottlers and rumours that the fuel price would skyrocket in the coming days.
The rumours were basically based on the fact that the Nepal Oil Corporation has been facing increasing losses - Rs 5.19 billion for the two-week period until mid-May, as per the latest notice - with the surge in price of fuel in the international market.
Maharjan informed that they had lodged a complaint with the concerned authorities about certain dealers charging consumers up to Rs 1,800 against the normal retail price of Rs 1,600 per cylinder.
"They were mostly found to be targeting tenants and those who had recently moved to their locality," he said, adding the government's monitoring team had taken prompt action, following which the situation is pretty much back to normal now.
Shrestha, however, claimed that he was not aware of any dealer intentionally trying to create artificial shortage of cooking gas.
The officials at the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Meanwhile, Shrestha called on consumers and dealers not to hoard LPG cylinders at homes or warehouses as it could also lead to an untoward incident.
A version of this article appears in the print on May 04, 2022, of The Himalayan Times
