SANGAM

Fuel supply to resume today

SANGAM PRASAIN
KATHMANDU, AUG 05 -
Agitating unions of Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) and the NOC board reached an agreement on Thursday evening, ending a two-day stalemate that had disrupted fuel supply.

In a meting between the agitating unions and the NOC board at the Ministry of Commerce and Supplies, the NOC staff agreed to resume the supply of petroleum products from Friday.

According to Commerce Secretary Purusottam Ojha, both sides have agreed on bonus distribution as per the existing law. The Bonus Act allows any corporation to distribute bonus up to 8 percent of profit even if it has incurred a cumulative loss.

Babu Ram Rai, president of Nepal National Employees' Union, said the agreement has been reached between the board and the unions and petroleum supply will resume from Friday.

The unions and the NOC board were at loggerheads after the board reversed its decision of distributing bonus worth Rs. 198.8 million. The NOC had earlier decided to distribute the bonus from its profit of fiscal year 2008/09.

It had made a profit of Rs 3.31 billion that fiscal year. It, however, was forced to withdraw its decision following criticism from the government, the CIAA and consumer rights groups.

Both sides have agreed to complete the maintenance of NOC's old depot within a year. Likewise, automation of the new depots will begin within a month, according to Rai. The losses of the NOC will be managed through a loss management plan.

Due to the bonus row, delivery of gasoline by NOC to petrol pumps in Kathmandu doubled on Thursday. Normally, NOC's Thankot depot supplies 500,000 litres of petroleum products daily. On Thursday, the supply was almost double. According to Thankot depot chief Bhuwaneshwor Rajbhandari, 962,000 litres of fuel were

supplied to private and public petrol pumps.

The agitating unions of NOC on Thursday closed its depots across the country after 1 p.m. The unions had closed the depots all day on Wednesday.

With the depots remaining open for only three hours, there was a long queue of over 100 tankers waiting to be refilled at the Thankot depot.

Of the total shipment made on Thursday, state-owned refuelling stations received 50,000 litres of diesel and petrol, said Rajbhandari. However, there was long queue of motorists on state-owned petrol pumps on Thursday.