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