NOC mulling over yet another fuel price hike

Kathmandu, October 1

In yet another move that could make the festive market costlier, Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) is gearing up to raise fuel price against the backdrop of rising gasoline price in the global market.

Citing that Indian Oil corporation (IOC) — the sole supplier of fuel to Nepal — has increased the price rate of fuel for the first half of October, NOC officials said that fuel price adjustment is inevitable before Dashain.

IOC sends revised fuel price to NOC fortnightly (every first and 16th day of the English calendar) as per the global change in gasoline price. “As per the new petroleum rates of IOC, NOC will bear monthly loss of almost Rs 1.3 billion,” informed Sushil Bhattarai, acting deputy managing director of NOC, adding price of fuel, especially petrol, diesel and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), has risen notably as per IOC’s new rate.

Bhattarai informed that NOC will incur loss in petrol, diesel and LPG while making profit in kerosene and aviation turbine fuel (ATF) as per the new rate. “Even after adjusting the profit of kerosene and ATF, NOC will bear huge monthly loss, especially due to mounting loss in LPG,” he added.

As per the new rate, loss in LPG has reached Rs 404.73 per cylinder from Rs 309.79 a cylinder earlier. Similarly, NOC now bears Rs 5.45 per litre loss in petrol and Rs 4.43 per litre loss in diesel against the previous loss of Rs 2.92 per litre in petrol and Rs 2.72 per litre in diesel.

However, NOC books profit of over Rs 15 per litre in ATF and Rs 23 per litre in kerosene.

“Automatic price adjustment of fuel in line with the global market is necessary for NOC to sustain,” said Bhattarai.

The rate revision, however, will certainly affect the festive market and consumers, as fuel price is directly related to cost of transportation and goods.

In the name of automatic price adjustment, NOC has already revised fuel price eight times in the last six months. Since mid-April, price of petrol has increased by eight rupees per litre while price of diesel and kerosene has gone up by
Rs 14 per litre each. Currently, petrol costs Rs 114 a litre, while diesel and kerosene cost Rs 101 per litre each. Similarly, LPG costs Rs 1,400 per cylinder.

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Rate revisions so far this year
Date	Petrol/litre	Diesel/litre	Kerosene/litre	LPG/cylinder	ATF/litre
1-Jan	Rs 102	Rs 79	Rs 79	Rs 1,375	Rs 90
17-Jan	Rs 103	Rs 81	Rs 81	Rs 1,375	Rs 95
1-Feb	Rs 104	Rs 83	Rs 83	Rs 1,375	Rs 95
4-Mar	Rs 103	Rs 83	Rs 83	Rs 1,375	Rs 95
2-Apr	Rs 105	Rs 85	Rs 85	Rs 1,385	Rs 95
16-Apr	Rs 106	Rs 87	Rs 87	Rs 1,375	Rs 95
2-May	Rs 108	Rs 90	Rs 90	Rs 1,375	Rs 95
16-May	Rs 110	Rs 92	Rs 92	Rs 1,375	Rs 100
2-Jun	Rs 113	Rs 95	Rs 95	Rs 1,375	Rs 100
16-Jun	Rs 110	Rs 93	Rs 93	Rs 1,375	Rs 100
19-Aug	Rs 111	Rs 95	Rs 95	Rs 1,375	Rs 100
5-Sep	Rs 112	Rs 98	Rs 98	Rs 1,400	Rs 100
17-Sep	Rs 114	Rs 101	Rs 101	Rs 1,400	Rs 100

Source: NOC

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