A subcommittee of the parliamentary Industry, Commerce and Consumer Rights Relation Committee has asserted that the state-owned Nepal Oil Corporation paid thrice the market price while purchasing the land here in Jhapa district.

Members of the subcommittee on Wednesday inspected the land that the NOC purchased at Charali in Mechinagar. The NOC has bought 23 bigha 3 kattha and 13 dhur land to build storage facilities for boosting fuel stock for Province 1.

After the field visit, lawmaker Dipak Karki said the NOC paid unusually high price for the land. The NOC bought the land for Rs1.35 million per Kattha while the market price is around Rs400,000 per unit, Karki added.

According to records at the District Land Revenue Office, the NOC paid Rs1.351 million per kattha of the land. However, landowners claimed to have received only Rs440,000 to Rs450,000 per unit. Lawmaker Karki said the rest of the money was misappropriated by NOC officials.

Another member of the subcommittee, Rambir Manandhar said the oil monopoly was found to have misappropriated millions of rupees while purchasing the property. The landowners said the locals were unaware that the NOC was the buyer when they sold the land.

“We knew nothing. I sold three bighas of land after they paid Rs440,000 per kattha for the land that cost about Rs300,000,” said Bhupendra Karki, one of the land owners.

The state-owned enterprise has come under the scanner for alleged misappropriation of funds amounting to Rs800 million while buying plots of land worth Rs1.61 billion in four places: Bhairahawa, Chitwan, Sarlahi and Jhapa.

The NOC had bought 24 bighas of land each in Chitwan and Jhapa districts and a further 20 bighas each in Bhairahawa and Sarlahi.