Kathmandu, May 17 Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) — the state-owned petroleum company — today repaid Rs 19.88 billion of the loan it had taken from the government and various financial institutions. After repaying the government’s Rs 3.64 billion today, NOC Spokesperson Mukunda Ghimire said that NOC now owes only Rs four billion to the government. NOC has been preparing to clear all its dues by the end of this fiscal. In the beginning of this fiscal, NOC’s loan burden stood at a staggering Rs 23.88 billion. Taking advantage of the rampant fall in crude oil price in the international market, NOC was able to generate high profit, which in turn helped to clear its outstanding dues. NOC, in this fiscal, cleared outstanding dues to the government worth Rs 8.64 billion, Rs six billion to Employment Provident Fund, Rs three billion to Citizen Investment Trust, Rs 1.14 billion to Everest Bank, Rs 800 million to Nabil Bank and Rs 300 million to Bank of Kathmandu, according to NOC Spokesperson Ghimire.