Posted by Anup Baral April 27, 2016 :
The government announced on Friday that it would be making another bid to implement a card system for the distribution of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) after the first two attempts ended in fiasco. The planned card system would support the scheme to use colour-coded cylinders for domestic and industrial users. Under this system, household buyers would get LPG in red cylinders at a subsidized rate while industrial users would get it in blue cylinders which would be sold at the full price. The card system was expected to make the LPG distribution channel transparent and hassle-free, besides curbing rampant black marketeering and hoarding. However, the card system was a non-starter as bottlers refused to cooperate complaining about the increased cost of using two types of cylinders.In 2012, the government inaugurated the system with much fanfare, issuing the first card to the then prime minister Baburam Bhattarai. A total of 632,000 such cards were distributed. Former chief of Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) Chandika Prasad Bhatta, who had planned to enforce the dual cylinder system from January 29, 2015, was removed from the post two days before the scheduled launch, allegedly under the influence of bottlers. Following his ouster, the plan was not implemented.