LPG crisis: Track the Cylinders, Punish the Hoarders

Nepal’s LPG crisis has been building for six months, but the recent floods and landslides have pushed it to another level. The closure of the Prithvi Highway, the capital’s main supply route, has made a bad situation worse. Gas tankers have failed to reach Kathmandu in sufficient numbers, households are spending hours in queues, and many consumers are struggling to find cooking gas at all. Yet road disruptions or closures cannot account for everything. Industry, Commerce and Supplies Minister Gauri Kumari Yadav has pointed to an alarming situation: she said the state-owned Nepal Oil Corporation has been supplying around 48,000 cylinders to Kathmandu every day, but only 19,000 to 20,000 are reportedly reaching consumers. Where are the rest? The minister says bottlers have failed to explain the gap despite repeated letters from the corporation. She has threatened to take action against bottlers, including revoking their licences. That may be necessary if companies have violated supply rules. But threats alone will not restore public confidence. The government needs to establish, through records and inspections, where the cylinders are going and why they are not reaching households. The bottlers, for their part, say the minister’s remarks amount to harassment and argue that the government should work with them rather than threaten them.