The Supply Ministry and the Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) are at loggerheads over scrapping of the permit extended to Nepali gas bottlers to acquire gas bullets.

The ministry has blamed the corporation for taking unilateral decision of awarding the permit to acquire gas bullets, with the latter countering that the ministry had delayed in preparing bylaws regarding allowing domestic players to acquire such vehicles. In a letter dated July 19 to the Nepal LP Gas Industry Association, the state-owned enterprise granted permission to the LGP bottlers to own 600 bullets. But the ministry scrapped the NOC decision the following day.

Following the NOC’s go-ahead, the association had even distributed quotas to its member gas companies to initiate the process.

The tussle between the ministry and the NOC surfaced only on Monday during a meeting of the Industry, Commerce and Consumer Welfare Protection Committee of Parliament.

According to the lawmakers participating in the committee meeting, the dispute took an ugly turn with Secretary at the Supply Ministry Shreedhar Sapkota and NOC Managing Director Gopal Bahadur Khadka resorting as far as to finger-pointing.

Amid reports that the government’s decision was influenced by Indian gas bullet owners, the house body convened the meeting to discuss the matter.

Clarifying the reason behind scrapping the NOC permit, Secretary Sapkota, who also heads the NOC board, said the enterprise took the decision without the ministry’s consent.

According to him, the government is for formulating bylaws to regulate the proposed Nepali gas bullets.

“However, NOC chief Khadka blamed the ministry for beging sluggish in decision making,” said an NOC official who also claimed that the corporation had in fact informed the ministry about the decision of allowing domestic private players to acquire gas bullets.

Earlier, the parliamentary committee had asked the government to allow the NOC to purchase bullets which could save around Rs3.5 billion annually for Nepal in transportation costs. According to the NOC, more than 523 Indian bullets have been used to transport LPG into Nepal.

Meanwhile, Madhav Timilsina, president of the Consumers Rights Investigation Forum, said the government should endorse Petroleum Act and related bylaws to check possible anomalies after allowing the Nepali companies to own gas bullets.