The Ministry of Supplies (MoS), in its clarification to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) today, has said the decision to allow privately-owned Birat Petroleum Pvt Ltd (BPPL) to sell petrol at a higher rate than current market price was basically due to ‘lack of coordination’ and ‘miscommunication’.
In the clarification submitted to PAC, MoS has said that neither the Department of Supply Management and Consumer Protection (DoSMCP), nor the Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) had fixed the market price.
“DoSMCP had sent a file to NOC seeking its view on allowing BPPL to sell petrol after receiving application from the latter,” the clarification submitted to the parliamentary committee says, adding, “After receiving the file, NOC unilaterally appointed the fuel stations to sell petrol imported by BPPL.”
The ministry has tried to make clear that allowing the private company to sell petrol at higher rate was obviously due to miscommunication and lack of coordination between DoSMCP and NOC.
The private company had started selling petrol at inflated price last Tuesday after receiving a green signal from NOC. The BPPL has fixed the price of petrol at Rs 130 per litre, while NOC has been selling the fuel at Rs 99 per litre.
The parliamentary panel, on Friday, had asked the MoS to present clarification regarding the price difference and for what purpose the government had allowed the private firm to sell petrol at higher price than the existing market rate.
Though it has said that both NOC and DoSMCP are not responsible in fixing the price of fuel imported by BPPL, the ministry has remained mum regarding the NOC not following the protocol.
The government, in the wake of fuel crisis, had formed a committee led by director general of DoSMCP and comprising officials from Department of Customs, NOC, MoS, Nepal Bureau of Standards and Metrology, to decide on the price of fuel imported by private companies before permitting sales in the retail market.
However, this time, BPPL had fixed the price on its own after the NOC said the company could sell petrol through its dealers. As all the fuel stations are authorised dealers of NOC, they cannot sell petroleum products of other companies without NOC’s approval.
The ministry has also submitted the justification of price submitted by BPPL to DoSMCP. According to the documents submitted today, the BPPL had paid Rs 139.07 per litre for petrol and it is selling the fuel at Rs 130 per litre.
If the dealer’s commission of four rupees per litre on the sales of petrol is included to its cost, BPPL faces loss of Rs 13.07 per litre, according to the justification of MoS to the parliamentary panel.
However, the market monitoring body and its parent ministry, instead of analysing the cost accrued while importing fuel, seem to have blindly believed BPPL’s claim that the company has been paying Rs 35.28 per litre as excise duty to the Indian government. Moreover, a second look at the cost details reveal that the BPPL has also shown higher transportation and insurance costs, technical losses, administrative costs and added around Rs 10 as demurrage charge per litre to inflate the price.
The parliamentary committee of Legislature-Parliament had expressed concerns about government’s decision to allow NOC and BPPL to sell petroleum products at exorbitant rates than the existing price in the market. The committee had written to the MoS on Friday to submit its clarifications and documents within three days.
यो समग्री नेपाल१२३.com मा पुरै पढौं
No comments:
Post a Comment