May 1: The Department of Commerce, Supplies and Consumer Protection took action against the gas dealers who did not cooperate as well as misbehaved during recent monitoring.

Director General of the Department Lila Prasad Sharma informed that action was taken against the dealers who denied showing purchase bills and broke the compliance with consumer law during the monitoring. According to him, action was taken against a gas depot of Kathmandu Metropolitan City-34 for not showing the purchase bill.

Similar action was taken against one depot of Kathmandu Metropolitan City-32 Subidhanagar for not showing the bill while two depots in Anamnagar were booked for not acting in accordance with the consumer law.

The department claims that various actions were taken and fines were slapped for not showing purchase bills during the monitoring in Chandragiri Municipality 14 and 15 and for not cooperating with the monitoring team by a depot of Lalitpur Metropolitan City 12.

The department claimed that they have intensified monitoring focused on gas dealers recently after they created an artificial shortage of cooking gas. The department informed that it is imposing a fine of up to Rs 20,000 if the dealers were found to have hidden cooking gas.