Kathmandu, August 22

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal has directed the Minister of Supplies to ease petroleum supply.

In a telephonic talk today, Prime Minister Dahal directed Minister for Supplies Deepak Bohora to immediately avert the petroleum crisis that has surfaced in Kathmandu Valley lately.

“Information on shortage of petroleum products in the capital has come to me. There is queue of customers around fuel pumps. What is the reason behind this? Put in place corrective measures to resolve the crisis,” PM Dahal told the Supplies Minister on the phone.

The Prime Minister instructed Minister Bohora to effectively monitor the market in a routine manner and regularise the supply of essential goods, including petro-products associated with the day-to-day life of the people, said the Prime Minister’s personal Under-secretary Manohari Timilsina.

In response, Minister Bohora briefed Prime Minister Dahal that the shortage of petro-products had surfaced in Kathmandu Valley due to public holidays for three consecutive days and assured that the problem would not stay any longer.

Meanwhile, the state-owned Nepal Oil Corporation has said there is no shortage of petro-products as such and the queue seen before petrol pumps would no more exist from tomorrow onwards.

Nepal Oil Corporation also clarified that there is no reason for the short supply of petro-products.

Nepal Oil Corporation Deputy Executive Director Nagendra Sah informed that there seems to be queues around pumps for customers tend to stock more petroleum products due to psychological fear of fuel crisis.

Executive Director Sah further said that more than 600,000 litres of petroleum products are being sold in Kathmandu Valley for the past few days even though the daily need is merely 300,000 litres.