Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has not made timely calibration of its equipment and oil tankers resulting in customers getting short measure of gasoline, an inspection team has revealed. 

The team headed by Supply Ministry Under-Secretary Baburam Bhusal submitted its report to the ministry on Monday.

Standard Measurement and Weight Act 1968 requires trading companies to update their equipment and other related devices every two years. However, the country’s only oil supplier has failed to abide by the law, the probe report said. 

The inspection team said that NOC could be involved in bad business practices by not maintaining its equipment. The panel, which was formed one and a half months ago, conducted field visits to NOC’s depots in Amlekhgunj and Thankot. 

The Nepal Bureau of Standards and Metrology (NBSM) said that NOC had renewed the certification of only 10 tankers in the last two years. The state-owned oil monopoly operates more than 1,200 tankers to ship petroleum products across the country.

Bishwo Babu Pudasaini, director general of the NBSM, said, “Although we have sent many letters to NOC asking it to have its equipment calibrated, it has not done so.” 

NOC has been ignoring the government’s directives too. 

However, the corporation denied charges that it had not been carrying out regular calibration. Acting deputy managing director Shushil Bhattarai said that the NBSM should conduct calibrations based on the applications made by the tankers. According to him, NOC has been using calibrated equipment to measure the fuel it sells. 

Bhattarai said they had planned to install calibration towers even at NOC’s small depots like Dhangadhi. “In a bid to minimise variation in petroleum measurement by Indian Oil Corporation and NOC, we have been holding talks with the Indian supplier to calibrate the equipment in the same manner,” he said.  

According to the report, NOC has also failed to calibrate the equipment it has been using at its depots.

NOC supplies petrol and diesel from its depots at Amlekhgunj in Parsa district, Mahendranagar in Dhanusha district, Pokhara, Surkhet, Dang and Thankot in Kathmandu. 

Similarly, the enterprise supplies aviation fuel from its depots in Biratnagar, Bhairahawa, Pokhara, Nepalgunj, Surkhet, Dhangadhi, Kathmandu and Manthali in Ramechhap district.

Prem Lal Maharjan, president of the National Consumer Forum who is also a member of the panel, said NOC’s depots at these locations had not calibrated their measurement devices. 

“NOC has not been using calibrated equipment at the depots,” said Maharjan, adding that equipment like weighing bridges, flow meters and calibration towers had been non-functional for years.

This is not the first time that the government has formed study panels to probe NOC’s suspected bad business practices. Two years ago, a high-level committee formed under National Vigilance Centre DIG Roshan Nath Pant had reported NOC for failing to supply the quoted quantity due to lack of calibrated equipment. 

The panel’s report showed that NOC had been giving up to 324 litres less for every 12 kilolitres of fuel, or a tanker load. Following the report, the Prime Minister’s Office had directed NOC on June 18, 2014 to use only calibrated measuring devices and certified tankers.