Kathmandu, August 29

The government is facing a difficult time to materialise its plan to substitute Indian liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) bullets with Nepali gas bullets as the Indian authorities have refused to issue ‘non-explosive certificate’ to the Nepali LPG bullets.

Though it has been more than six months that Nepali gas companies have been denied the non-explosive certificates for their gas bullets, which are manufactured in India, the failure of the government to resolve the issue on time has delayed the process of substituting Indian gas bullets with Nepali bullets.

Moreover, domestic gas companies have been disappointed as the issue could not be addressed even during the recent official visit to India made by Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba.

“The issue regarding non-explosive certificates to Nepali bullets has not been resolved since long, which shows that our government is not making a serious effort to address it,” said Shiva Prasad Ghimire, president of Nepal LP Gas Industry Association. “Though the government, including Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC), has been claiming that they have been holding dialogue with Indian government to resolve the issue, both governments seem to have given less priority to the process to substitute Indian gas bullets with Nepali gas bullets.”

As per Ghimire, more than 400 LPG Nepali gas bullets that have already been manufactured have not been able to start transporting gas due to lack of the non-explosive certificate.

The non-explosive certificate is a mandatory certificate that gas bullets have to show at the Indian oil refineries while loading petroleum products.

Domestic gas bottlers have also said that Indian authorities are reluctant to issue non-explosive certificates to Nepali gas bullets as Indian transporters, who are against the move of the Nepali government to substitute Indian gas bullets, have been pressurising the Indian government.

Similarly, gas bottlers have also warned that the domestic market might have to face LPG crunch after mid-November following the delay in issuing non-explosive certificates to Nepali gas bullets citing that Nepali LPG bottlers have signed an agreement with Indian transporters to allow Indian LPG bullets to supply cooking gas for Nepal only up to November 17.

Meanwhile, officials of NOC have said supply of cooking gas will not be disrupted at any cost and government will make all efforts to ensure that Nepali gas bullets get required certificates from Indian government as soon as possible.