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. 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