KATHMAND
U:Households and restaurant owners across the Kathmandu Valley are entering a sixth month of an unresolved cooking gas shortage, with current supply running at well below a fifth of daily demand and consumers paying up to Rs 3,000 for a cylinder that officially costs Rs 2,165.
The crisis has layered several distinct disruptions on top of each other. According to Nepali media portals, the original strain on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) supply traces back to February, when regional conflict in West Asia affecting oil markets first squeezed Nepal's fuel imports. The government responded at the time by distributing partially filled cylinders rather than full ones. Supply had begun stabilising by August, with the state-owned Nepal Oil Corporation resuming distribution of full 14.2-kilogram cylinders until the August 26 Bhotekoshi flood in Rasuwa damaged the Prithvi Highway, the main supply corridor into the Valley, and a subsequent landslide caused the highway to collapse entirely at Krishnabhir in early September, cutting off the route a second time.
Numbers that don't fully add up and why that matters
Officials and industry figures disagree sharply on both demand and supply. Nepal Oil Corporation puts Kathmandu Valley's normal daily LPG demand at 35,000 to 40,000 cylinders; the LPG Industry Association, representing dealers, puts current demand closer to 100,000 cylinders a day. On the supply side, the corporation's spokesperson has said 57,000 metric tonnes of gas entered Nepal between mid-July and mid-August above the country's average monthly demand of 45,000 to 46,000 metric tonnes even as consumers in Kathmandu report going weeks without a refill. Police checkpoint data cited by Nepali media portals showed roughly 169,530 cylinders entering the Valley through the Nagdhunga checkpoint over a recent 11-day stretch, alongside separate reports of single-day deliveries as low as 18,259 cylinders after the Krishnabhir collapse.
That gap between national import figures and what actually reaches Kathmandu households is, industry and consumer voices say, the real story: gas is entering the country, and even entering the Valley in meaningful volumes, but isn't reliably reaching ordinary consumers. Dealers say industries and bottlers have been unable to supply them directly, forcing them to travel to bottling plants in the Tarai themselves at extra cost costs some are passing on to consumers as unofficial price hikes of Rs 100 to 105 per cylinder on top of the official rate. Others point to hoarding: NOC has said it is prioritising household consumers and flood-affected families first, restaurants and commercial users second, after commercial hoarding was blamed for worsening shortages earlier in the year.
The political cost
The shortage has already claimed one cabinet position. Industry, Commerce and Supplies Minister Gauri Kumari Yadav resigned on September 10, a day after telling a parliamentary committee she would seek to annul the licenses of Nepal's 58 gas companies and accusing dealers of manufacturing an artificial shortage remarks that drew a formal complaint from business representatives to the prime minister, as ICN has reported separately. Her successor inherits a supply chain that remains, by most independent accounts, still badly strained.
Public frustration has visibly sharpened. Nepali media portals have reported that queues now stretch for hours with no guaranteed outcome, that some depots are asking consumers to leave empty cylinders and wait two weeks to over a month for a refill, and that well-connected households — including, according to one account, ministerial residences continue to receive home deliveries without difficulty, a contrast ordinary consumers have noticed and resented. Ruling-party lawmakers have reportedly told constituents directly that they are struggling to explain the situation.
What Kathmandu Valley readers should know right now
The official, government-fixed price for a refilled 14.2kg cylinder is Rs 2,165 (some recent reports cite Rs 2,060 as an earlier fixed rate; confirm the current figure with your dealer or NOC before paying). Anything significantly above that reflects an unofficial markup, not a legal price increase.
Nepal Oil Corporation has said it has not issued any official policy barring restaurants or commercial establishments from receiving LPG if a dealer tells you commercial supply has been formally cut off, that claim is disputed by the corporation itself.
NOC's Teku depot in Kathmandu has been distributing cylinders from multiple bottlers during set hours (historically around 11:30 am to 4 pm) during past shortage periods check current depot hours locally, as these change.
If you suspect a dealer is overcharging significantly beyond the official rate, this is the kind of complaint Nepal Oil Corporation and the Department of Commerce, Supplies and Consumer Protection are set up to receive, though ICN has not independently confirmed current response times for such complaints.
