Kathmandu, March 22
Minister for Industry, Commerce and Supplies Matrika Prasad Yadav has said long-pending issue regarding issuance of ‘non-explosive’ certificates to Nepali gas bullets will be resolved within a few days.
Addressing the media today after his return from India, Minister Yadav informed that Dharmendra Pradhan, Indian minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas, has given assurance to resolve the ‘non-explosive’ certificate issuance process to Nepali liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) bullets and facilitate Nepal to operationalise its own LPG bullets.
“Along with the commitment to this effect from the Indian minister, we are hopeful that every issue that has been hindering the plan to use our own LPG bullets to supply cooking gas in the country will be addressed soon,” said Yadav.
It has been over a year that the Indian authorities refused to issue non-explosive certificates to Nepali gas bullets — a major setback to materialise the plan to substitute Indian gas-carrying bullets.
Such certificate, that has to be issued by the Indian authorities, is a mandatory document for LPG bullets to get gas loading facility at different LPG refineries of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC). However, the Indian authorities have not been issuing such certificates to Nepali gas bullets since long.
Shiva Ghimire, immediate past president of Nepal LP Gas Industry Association, said that the delay in issuance of the non-explosive certificates to Nepali LPG bullets has put the investment of Nepali bottlers worth billions of rupees at risk.
“Nepali gas bottlers have booked hundreds of gas-carrying bullets in India while a few of them have already arrived in Nepal. However, Nepali bullets are still unable to enter the gas supplying business following weak facilitation from the government,” said Ghimire, adding gas bottlers this time are optimistic towards all the issues being addressed soon.
Meanwhile, it has also been learned that the government is preparing to table the issue regarding non-explosive certificates to Nepali gas bullets during the Nepal-India inter-governmental committee (IGC) meeting scheduled to be held in Pokhara on April 26 and 27.
Almost two years ago, Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) had authorised Nepali gas companies to procure 775 gas bullets as per the government’s vision to substitute Indian LPG bullets that have been supplying cooking gas to Nepal since decades.
A version of this article appears in print on March 23, 2018 of The Himalayan Times.