Kathmandu, April 13

Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has said that it will not adjust fuel price on a daily basis in the domestic market despite the Indian government announcing that it will revise fuel price every day in different Indian states effective from May 1.

State-owned Indian fuel companies — Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), Bharat Petroleum Corp Ltd (BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd (HPCL) — will revise fuel price every day as per international rates in five Indian cities, namely Puducherry, Visakhapatnam, Udaipur, Jamshedpur and Chandigarh as part of a pilot project, Reuters had reported on Wednesday.

These Indian oil companies aim to extend such system to all fuel refineries across the country after an assessment of consumer response. IOC is the sole supplier of petroleum products to Nepal and is currently supplying petroleum products from different refineries based in Bihar.

“IOC has not introduced daily price adjusting system in refineries from where Nepal is collecting petroleum products,” said Sitaram Pokharel, spokesperson for NOC, adding that NOC will not implement daily price adjustment system in the Nepali market even if IOC begins this system in its oil depots supplying fuel to Nepal.

As per Pokharel, daily adjustment of fuel price would be chaotic. “Even if the Indian government implements this system targeting oil supply to Nepal, we will adjust fuel price fortnightly as per the auto-pricing mechanism of the government,” added Pokharel.