| ashu |
Posted
on 19-Feb-04 05:24 PM
Before proposing solutions, let's look at the problem more fully.
1. Though Nepal buys petroloeum products in the world market, it gets its petroleum products in from India.
2. Adulteration starts to occur in Nepal when Indian Oil Corporation's and other trucks start unloading their petroleum cargo in Nepal .. . at depots in Birgunj and in Amlekhgunj.
3. BOTH the karmacharis of Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) and the members of Nepal Petroleum Dealers' Association (NPDA) have long ben in cahoots with one another to
mix kerosone and other impurities in petrol. Why? To sell more petrol.
4. Adulteration of petrol is a HUGE business, amouting to Arab of rupees, that has long been conducted with the participation of government (esp. NOC) officials who then forward a 'cut" to their political masters.
5. Thus adulterated petrol makes it way to various petrol pumps in Nepal, where they are further adulterated. The NOC people get their cut; the NPDA people make money and build gaudy houses in Kathmandu.
6. Nepal Oil Corporation, by the way, is as mismanaged and as corrupt, if not more, than Royal Nepal Airlines Corportion. Just like in RNAC, political patronage counts a
lot. Officials pay lakhs of rupees to ministers to have their "saruwa" to NOC.
7. The NOC's immediate past General Manager -- Madan Sharma -- is in jail on account
of corruption charges.
8. Do I need to mention that the NPDA is a distribution CARTEL? That is, it gets petrolem products from the government, adulterates them with government's approval, gives the government its cut, and cheats the customers by NOT fostering market-based cmpetition among its members. And so, when one official at NPDA says, let's not sell petrol, others follow suit. [In India, petrol stations compete with one another by
claiming how "pure" their petrol is.]
9. As I have wrote last Tuesday for publication today (Friday) in my column in The
Nepali Times:
"It’s also an open secret that for a long time, the government officials were in cahoots with the NPDA members. But the government abruptly changed its tune. For the sake of illustration, imagine what happens when of the two thieves, one suddenly changes profession to be a police officer. The other would be angry, hurt and remain in denial for some time. This is what happened here too. The government, whose officers have long benefited from NPDA members, has now assumed the avatar of a police officer, as an enforcer of new rules. This makes the pampered NPDA members sulk in a corner for some time like a betrayed friend."
"Still, much of the blame should go to NPDA. Not only was it pursuing a myopic strategy to adulterate petrol with government as silent partner, it’s also stuck in an industry in which the government is the one and only authorised supplier. Short of getting out of this lucrative business altogether, the NPDA members have no choice but to either grease palms to buy more time or come around to agree with whatever the government says, which I predict that they will do. That means, no more lines for petrol by the end of this week."
oohi
ashu
ktm,nepal
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