The Nepal Oil Corporation ERP system is set to bring the state-owned fuel importer’s annual transactions, valued at around Rs300 billion, onto a single digital platform. The corporation says the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) project is intended to make its operations more efficient, transparent and accountable, and it has now reached the handover stage. The change replaces a largely paper-based and physical way of working that relied on visits to depots and printed deposit vouchers.
How the Nepal Oil Corporation ERP System Works for Dealers and Airlines
Once fully in use, more than 1,500 dealers, 60 bottlers and 60 airlines and airline agents will be able to place fuel orders online without visiting the corporation’s depots in person. Around 800 employees of the corporation are also expected to use the platform. According to Pradeep Kumar Yadav, chief of the ERP project, the system allows customers to make digital payments and view their transaction records online.
Mr Yadav said the previous arrangement was cumbersome and, at times, risky. Before 2020, dealers and airlines across the country had to carry cash to banks, obtain deposit vouchers and then take those vouchers to the relevant depots. There were even instances of accidents involving people carrying cash, he said, because they feared losing their fuel allocation if the vouchers were not submitted on time.
From Deposit Vouchers to Digital Payments
Under the new arrangement, all Class A banks associated with the corporation hold accounts in its name. Customers deposit money into these accounts through ConnectIPS on their mobile banking applications, and the payment details reach the corporation’s system through Nepal Clearing House. Mr Yadav said the system displays the deposited amount immediately, removing the need to carry paper vouchers to depots.
The corporation is preparing to move all of its payment transactions online. Mr Yadav said the system is being developed so that only tanker trucks, their drivers and assistants will need to visit depots. The shift is designed to cut travel, reduce handling of cash and give customers a faster confirmation that their payments have been received.
Integration Across Departments and With Indian Oil Corporation
The corporation says the platform brings together sales, distribution, finance, accounting, procurement, storage and human resource management in one software environment. Rajan Nepal, a computer engineer at the corporation, said the aim was to ensure that data entered in one place could be accessed across departments without being keyed in repeatedly. The corporation argues that this reduces duplication, improves accuracy and supports faster, evidence-based decisions.
The system also addresses a longstanding gap in monitoring supplies. Mr Nepal said the corporation previously had no means of tracking the loading of tankers and liquefied petroleum gas bullet tankers at Indian Oil Corporation facilities until drivers supplied the information. After coordinating with the Indian company, the corporation has connected its system to the Indian Oil platform. For security reasons, access is restricted to computers provided by the corporation within its office premises, and employees cannot operate the system from home.
Technology, Contract and Costs
The platform runs on SAP Business One, developed by Germany’s SAP, and is built on the SAP HANA database. Mr Yadav said this allows it to process large volumes of data quickly and to integrate with other systems, including banking platforms and depot automation. Major modules, covering sales and distribution, human resource information, finance, asset management, treasury and accounting, are already in operation, and an e-recruitment system has also been introduced.
The corporation signed its agreement with Neoteric Neo Software JV on July 19, 2020, after a competitive bidding process under the Public Procurement Act 2007 and its regulations. The contract provided for a 36-month project period, made up of 12 months for development and 24 months for implementation and maintenance. Its total value was Rs228.7 million, excluding value-added tax. The project has reached the handover stage more than six years after the agreement was signed, though the corporation’s reporting does not detail the reasons for the timeline.
An assessment by Uniconsult of Kathmandu University found that around 88 percent of the functional requirements had been completed. The ERP project office currently operates from rented premises in Lokanthali, Bhaktapur, and the corporation has invited bids to establish a data centre on the sixth floor of its central office from Baisakh, the Nepali month that begins in mid-April.
Plans for Automation and Artificial Intelligence
Looking ahead, the corporation intends to integrate the ERP system with Internet of Things and artificial intelligence technologies to make fuel supply operations more efficient, secure and transparent, according to Mr Yadav. It also aims to connect automated depots to the platform, which it says would improve the accuracy and transparency of fuel storage, distribution and accounting.
If those plans are realised, the Nepal Oil Corporation ERP system could become the backbone of fuel distribution in a sector where accountability has long been a public concern. For now, its immediate effect is practical, as dealers, bottlers and airlines are moving from carrying cash and paper to placing orders and making payments from their own devices.
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