Commerce Department Refutes Industry Minister’s Claim of Hidden Gas Stock; Controversy Over Raid at Radisson Hotel
The government appears to be adopting a cheap tactic to cover up its failure by raiding a five-star hotel instead of taking responsibility for the artificial shortage of cooking gas in the market. While the Commerce Department clarified that the cylinders stored at the Radisson Hotel adhere to regular consumption procedures, the ministry has gone as far as labeling it black market hoarding. Business owners and consumer rights advocates have stated that the government’s approach will not resolve the issue and have called for breaking syndicates to ease supply.
Kathmandu, 28 Shrawan – For over a month, the entire country has faced an artificial shortage of LPG cooking gas, resulting in the public lining up beside empty cylinders along the roads. Despite complete failure in managing gas supply, the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies is currently engaged in cheap stunts and misinformation to conceal its shortcomings. Minister Gauri Kumari Yadav has herself assured consumers over the phone about receiving gas, while the ministry’s Commerce, Supply, and Consumer Protection Department has been promoting a risky narrative by portraying routine monitoring as a raid on a high-end hotel.
Just today, the minister’s secretariat claimed in the media that the Commerce Department raided the Radisson Hotel, a five-star establishment in Lazimpat, seizing 184 gas cylinders supposedly ‘hidden’ there. The ministry also indicated that actions are being prepared against the hotel for hoarding a large quantity of gas when consumers are unable to obtain it.
However, the government’s claim borders on the absurd as it is contradicted by the department’s own documentation stating, “at the hotel kitchen, 70 cylinders were observed in simultaneous use.” For an international chain hotel that serves hundreds of guests daily and operates with a manifold system connecting 70 gas cylinders at once, having 184 cylinders in stock cannot be considered unauthorized storage or black market hoarding. Mathematically, the presence of 184 cylinders where 70 are consumed simultaneously only represents a backup supply for about two to three days.
Given the severe gas shortage and the government’s failure to guarantee regular supply, is it a crime or a necessity for a business to maintain a two- to three-day backup supply to ensure uninterrupted service? Understanding this, the department’s “raid-style” action against Radisson appears to be nothing more than a stunt and a tool to hide its own inadequacies.
“We did not conduct a raid, only routine monitoring,” says Commerce Department
According to the Commerce Department, which conducted the monitoring, the hotel did not hide any gas, and the stock was only for regular use. Anil Kiranti, the department’s information officer, flatly rejected the ministry’s allegations, clarifying that no raid was carried out, only routine inspections. Due to the larger gas consumption systems of five-star hotels, the presence of about 150 cylinders cannot be classified as black market hoarding or concealed storage, he explained.
“This is part of our regular monitoring. We have inspected five or six five-star hotels, including Radisson, Solti, and Hyatt,” Kiranti stated. “During this monitoring, it was found that nearly 150 cylinders are present in five-star hotels, with 80 to 90 cylinders connected simultaneously, reflecting actual consumption, not hidden stock.”
Despite the department’s conclusion that no gas was hidden, the ministry and the minister propagated false claims of recovering hoarded gas following the alleged raid. When questioned about this, Information Officer Kiranti expressed ignorance about the ministry’s stunt. “I can’t comment on that, but from our perspective, this was only a routine monitoring and the gas was stored for normal hotel use,” he added.