The government has started distributing customer cards, providing subsidy on Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) to general consumers from Tuesday.

Minister for Commerce and Supplies Lekhraj Bhatta issued the first LPG consumer card to Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai amidst a programme at Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers in Singha Durbar.

Similarly, Secretary at the Ministry of Commerce and Supplies Lalmani Joshi handed over the LPG consumer cards to Minister Bhatta, State Minister for Commerce and Supplies Bishnu Chaudhary and Acting General Manager of Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC)  Suresh Agrawal.

Speaking at the programme, NOC Acting General Manager Agrawal said that NOC has targeted to issue the LPG consumer cards within May 13 in the capital in the first phase and would start distribution from May 28 outside the Kathmandu valley.

Card is being distributed to the consumers through the LP gas dealers and retailers, according to NOC. The consumers have to pay Rs. 10 to get card by filling a form.

The cards have two categories – red and blue. The red card is for the household purposes and blue for the industrial purpose.

After acquiring card, consumer will get the cooking gas at a subsidised rate fixed by the government.

The NOC said that card  system would help minimise black-marketing and embezzlement in the supply of cooking gas in the market. nepalnews.com