Of around 6,500 cooking gas depots in the Valley, only 1,700 have certified their shops as the deadline ended on Thursday.

In March, the Department of Supply Management had issued a public notice asking the depots to mandatorily certify their shops. The move is aimed at ensuring effective monitoring of quantity and quality of cooking gas cylinders and tracking the details of cooking gas consumers.

Despite sufficient quantity of LPG cylinders supplied in the market, consumers are still finding it hard to buy the fuel amid complaints about LPG bottlers selling the cylinders through unauthorised depots.

The dead line was extended three times. It was extended by 35 days the third time and department issued the certification to 750 depots during the period, said Laxman Shrestha, director at the department.

Officials said the department seeks to address complaints LPG bottlers have been selling the cylinders to commercial clients like big hotels and catering services through unauthorised gas dealers. “If the depot certification provision is enforced strictly, it will ease the availability of cooking gas for the general people,” Shrestha said. 

Chandra Bahadur Thapa, general secretary of Gas Dealer Federation Nepal, said the certification will make it easier for the government authorities to monitor the market. “The certification will track the details of the consumers and quantity of gas supplied in the market by the LPG bottlers,” he said. “However, a large number of depots are not willing to certify their shops with a motive to take undue advantage of the situation.”

Nepal Oil Corporation has said 30,000 tonnes of LPG was imported in March, against the monthly demand of 29,000 tonnes. There are 55 gas bottling plants operating across the country. They have 62,000 certified cylinders. However, 500,000 new cylinders have been estimated to have been circulated in the market sold by unauthorised gas depots taking the advantage of cooking gas shortage.