Rautahat, April 29

Despite the smooth supply of fuel for more than a couple of months now, black-marketing of petrol is thriving in Rautahat and other districts of central Tarai.

As the petrol stations located in central Tarai have stopped selling petrol citing shortage, the customers are bound to buy petroleum products on the black market.

Most of the petrol stations in the area have signs saying “no petrol” hung at their gates.

Meanwhile, shops nearby and around the fuel stations have been openly selling petrol in water bottles at inflated prices.

Interestingly, people can easily buy petrol at Rs 150 per litre from grocery shops to hotels. There are around 51 fuel stations in Rautahat and 22 of them deal in petrol.

The illegal sale of petrol is not limited to town areas, though. “It’s not that the fuel stations don’t receive petrol.

A couple of tankers do come with petrol sometimes, but the black marketers take advantage of it and scoop all the petrol in jerry cans and the likes, and sell them at inflated prices,” said a local.

On his part, Rautahat Petroleum Sellers Association Nepal chairperson Mahesh Kumar Das denied any foul play by the fuel station owners and attributed the crisis to the low supply from India.

Nepal Oil Corporation Amlekhgunj Depot Regional Chief Chilendra Karki attributed the prolonged crisis to the short supply of fuel from India.

Chief District Officer Narahari Baral rued increasing black-marketing and vowed to take action against anyone involved in it. “I’ve already directed the police to do the needful to control black-marketing of fuel,” said the CDO.