NOC breaks rules allowing Birat Petroleum to sell petrol

Kathmandu March 11- Nepal Oil Corporation involved in yet another controversies, as it has allowed privately-owned Birat Petroleum Pvt Ltd to sell petrol at Rs 130 per litre. According to NOC, it has extended permission to BPPL to sell 132,000 litres of fuel through its authorised dealers after receiving a go-ahead from the Department of Supply Management and Consumer Protection.

DoSMCP, on the other hand, claims it never approved NOC to allow the private company to sell fuel in the retail market. After receiving consent from NOC, BPPL has started selling fuel to consumers at Rs 31 per litre more than the existing market rate. At least two fuel stations in the Valley Jayanti Oil Store at Tripureshwor and Valley Rikesh Suppliers at Tinkune started distributing petrol imported by BPPL on Thursday.

The service stations selling fuel imported by Birat have put up flex prints boasting they are selling ‘Euro4 graded petrol’. However, an official at Nepal Bureau of Standards and Metrology, on condition of anonymity, said it was a false claim and the fuel imported by Birat is of the same grade as that imported by NOC.

If it’s true, the private company is making a profit of over 30 per cent on the sale of petrol. This is in direct violation of the existing "Black-marketing and Some Other Social Offenses and Punishment Act" that bars businesspeople from making a profit above 20 per cent. It is reported that BPPL has offered dealer commission of four rupees on the sale of each litre of petrol to the fuel stations.

Moreover, by allowing BPPL to sell petrol through its dealers, NOC has also breached the Dealers Bylaw. The bylaw clearly states that the state-owned petroleum company cannot allow any private firm to use its dealers to sell fuel in the market. Source: THT