LPG bottlers face shortage of cylinders

Kathmandu February 21- Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) bottling plants based in Dhading are facing a shortage of cylinders. The bottlers said nearly 75 percent of their cylinders were still with consumers. Due to panic buying triggered by a shortage of cooking gas, a large number of households, particularly in the Kathmandu Valley, have been hoarding cylinders.

Generally, bottling plants send 33 percent of their cylinders to the market after refilling, while another 33 percent is stocked at the plant to refill and the remaining is used by households. There are 13 bottling plants in Dhading.

The shortage aggravated after the government introduced the half-filled (7.1kg) cylinder distribution system. LPG traders said consumers started to buy and hoard any number of half-filled cylinders, while they failed to return their empty cylinders. Source: TKP