Kathmandu, December 24:

The Indian Embassy in Nepal today debunked reports in the media which attributed the recent petrol shortage in the country to a substantial reduction in supplies by the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC). It claimed that this was totally untrue .

The Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) owes IOC about INR 700 crore, but the recent shortage has no linkage whatsoever to the outstanding dues, pointed out Gopal Baglay, Counsellor (press, information and culture) at the Indian Embassy. “There was actually a drop in demand made by NOC and not a drop in supply from IOC for the month of December,” said Baglay.

“While the indent (amount demanded by NOC) for November 2006 was for INR 200 crore worth of oil, which was supplied in toto, for December there was a reduced indent for only INR 165 crore of oil,” he said.

According to figures presented by the Indian Embassy, IOC had supplied 4,8281 MTs of petroleum products between December 1- 21, 2006, whereas it had supplied 37,758 MT between November 1-21.

He said on December 20, 2006, NOC had indicated to its Indian counterpart that it would procure supplies worth INR 68.70 crore to supplement its stock.

Meanwhile the managing director of NOC, Bishwanath Goel today claimed that there was a fall in purchase of petro products in December because NOC paid less than the required amount, “We didn’t pay them enough money this month.

So if you pay less you get less,” said Goel, “Till October, we were allowed credit as in we could lift more than the amount we paid for. But now they have stopped this policy,” The MD admitted the spiralling dues to IOC was becoming a matter of grave concern. “We are exploring the possibility of making an additional payment of INR 25-30 crore every mo-nth over and above the regular payments to IOC. Even then it’ll take 3-4 years to settle these dues,” he said.