Petroleum shortage in the capital

There has been shortage of petroleum supplies in the capital Kathmandu as well as other major cities across the country since Tuesday.

Since past one month, the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) – the sole supplier of petroleum products to the Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) – has cut down its supplies to Nepal by 30 percent. The decision to cut down the supplies is said to have been made in order to press NOC to pay back outstanding dues worth billions of rupees.

On the top of IOC's move, the transporters in the country, too, have launched a strike paralyzing the supply network. The transporters have launched the strike demanding changes in the provision of shrinkage, reduction in fines and changes in procedure of measuring the volume of the fuel.

On Tuesday, most of the petrol pumps in the capital remained closed leading to serpentine queues of people in a handful of pumps that sold petrol. nepalnews.com sd Nov 22 06