Supply Ministry is normalising distribution of petroleum products from Friday. The ministry said it would also be scrapping the quota system that the government has been imposing on the fuel supply.

Deepak Subedi, joint secretary at the ministry said they would be selling petroleum products from both private and government owned petrol pumps. The government has planned to provide motorbike with 5 liter of petrol while a four wheeler can refill 15 l at a time. “Provided the loading from Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) is improved, the vehicles very soon will be able to purchase fuel as in normal days,” said Subedi who is also the coordinator of the high level supply committee formed by the government following Indian unofficial blockade.

With the blockade that was imposed on September 22, the oil supply dropped to as low as 80 kl a day from the normal day supply of over 1,700 kl. Citing the short supply, the government had been providing fuel only to the vehicles of emergency services and essential supply before distributing the private vehicles on registration lot basis recently.

Subedi said they have cancelled the quota system now. “However, we will be providing 5 liters of petrol to motorbike while a four wheeler will get 15 l each time in the initial phase,” he added.

According to Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC), Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) has been increasing providing load at its depots after India lifted the blockade last Friday. In the last three days, Nepal imported around 3,000 kl of petroleum products from Raxaul alone.

NOC Spokesperson Deepak Baral said they were receiving an expected 1,000 kl from Raxaul on Thursday. “Although the IOC depot was supposed to provide 1,700-1,800 kl on the day, we were unable to send our tankers there due to the traffic congestion along Birgunj-Raxaul route,” he said.