Yet another committee has been formed to study problems plaguing the petrol eum sector.
The Legislature-Parliament on Friday formed an 11-member committee, which has been asked to submit its report within the next 30 days. The committee has been entrusted with the task of holding studies on Nepal Oil Corporation’s (NOC) losses, shrinkages, leakages and administrative costs, and recommend necessary reforms.
The committee will also look into alternative sources of energy and suggest whether the private sector could play a role on the front. The formation of the committee follows a government pledge on March 20 to institute one after the opposition disrupted House proceedings over the hike of petrol prices.
This is the eighth such committee formed since 2002, when a panel led by Tapa Bahadur Singh was set up to recommend reforms at NOC. The last high-level committee was formed by the Cabinet in 2011 led by current Tourism Minister Bhim Prasad Acharya. All these committees had suggested an automatic fuel price adjustment system in line with international prices. Besides, other recommendations of these committees include petrol eum price be increased to the level that covers NOC’s costs and liberalisation be adopted in import and distribution.
However, every successive government has failed to implement these measures and there are doubts whether the recommendations made by the new committee will be implemented. Fearing a possible public protest, the government always took populist moves to offer subsidy to NOC every time when there was a need for a price hike.
Former Commerce Secret-ary Purushottam Ojha said forming a committee every time when petrol eum prices are increased has become a ritual. “But unfortunately, recommendations made by previous committees have not been implemented,” he said adding implementation is vital and it depends on the government’s will power.
According to Ojha, the government has to provide subsidies on LPG and diesel for targeted groups until there is sufficient electricity in the country. He said the government also has to end the NOC’s monopoly, a recommendation made by almost all the panels.
At present, the perennially broke NOC has Rs 34.16 billion in loans to be paid to the government and different banks and financial institutions.
However, the government has implemented some recommendations made by the Bhim Acharya-led committee. Currently, NOC is adjusting fuel prices whenever there is a huge rise in the prices in the international market. And, it is sharing the burden with consumers, the government and itself equally as per the suggestion of the committee.
The panel in its report has suggested government make up one-third of the price rise through subsidy, NOC make up one-third through cross-subsidy and the rest be made up by hiking the prices.
The report had slammed the NOC for not ensuring competition in fuel transportation and not adopting a scientific mechanism for setting transportation costs. Until now, NOC hasn’t shown any interest in promoting competition in petrol eum transportation. The plan to build a Nepal-India oil pipeline has been stuck at the National Planning Commi-ssion over modality. The planned Amlekhgunj-Raxual pipeline is expected to reduce NOC’s cost significantly.
Remaining part | source
The Legislature-Parliament on Friday formed an 11-member committee, which has been asked to submit its report within the next 30 days. The committee has been entrusted with the task of holding studies on Nepal Oil Corporation’s (NOC) losses, shrinkages, leakages and administrative costs, and recommend necessary reforms.
The committee will also look into alternative sources of energy and suggest whether the private sector could play a role on the front. The formation of the committee follows a government pledge on March 20 to institute one after the opposition disrupted House proceedings over the hike of petrol prices.
This is the eighth such committee formed since 2002, when a panel led by Tapa Bahadur Singh was set up to recommend reforms at NOC. The last high-level committee was formed by the Cabinet in 2011 led by current Tourism Minister Bhim Prasad Acharya. All these committees had suggested an automatic fuel price adjustment system in line with international prices. Besides, other recommendations of these committees include petrol eum price be increased to the level that covers NOC’s costs and liberalisation be adopted in import and distribution.
However, every successive government has failed to implement these measures and there are doubts whether the recommendations made by the new committee will be implemented. Fearing a possible public protest, the government always took populist moves to offer subsidy to NOC every time when there was a need for a price hike.
Former Commerce Secret-ary Purushottam Ojha said forming a committee every time when petrol eum prices are increased has become a ritual. “But unfortunately, recommendations made by previous committees have not been implemented,” he said adding implementation is vital and it depends on the government’s will power.
According to Ojha, the government has to provide subsidies on LPG and diesel for targeted groups until there is sufficient electricity in the country. He said the government also has to end the NOC’s monopoly, a recommendation made by almost all the panels.
At present, the perennially broke NOC has Rs 34.16 billion in loans to be paid to the government and different banks and financial institutions.
However, the government has implemented some recommendations made by the Bhim Acharya-led committee. Currently, NOC is adjusting fuel prices whenever there is a huge rise in the prices in the international market. And, it is sharing the burden with consumers, the government and itself equally as per the suggestion of the committee.
The panel in its report has suggested government make up one-third of the price rise through subsidy, NOC make up one-third through cross-subsidy and the rest be made up by hiking the prices.
The report had slammed the NOC for not ensuring competition in fuel transportation and not adopting a scientific mechanism for setting transportation costs. Until now, NOC hasn’t shown any interest in promoting competition in petrol eum transportation. The plan to build a Nepal-India oil pipeline has been stuck at the National Planning Commi-ssion over modality. The planned Amlekhgunj-Raxual pipeline is expected to reduce NOC’s cost significantly.
Remaining part | source
0 comments:
Post a Comment