NOC hikes POL prices

Citing its mounting losses, the Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) Wednesday hiked the prices of petroleum products.

The NOC increased the price of petrol by 6 rupees per litre, diesel by 2 rupees and kerosene by 3 rupees per litre and LP gas by 200 rupees per cylinder.

The new retail price of per litre of petrol, diesel and kerosene has been fixed at 73 rupees, 56.86 rupees and 51 rupees respectively while a LPG cylinder will cost 1100 rupees.

The NOC said the revision in POL prices would be effective from today midnight.

NOC managing director Digambar Jha described the price hike as “minimum possible hike”. He said the hike was inevitable in view of the continuous loss the NOC has had to cope with.

“The price of oil in the international market has jumped from about USD 63 to USD 83 per barrel in the last 4-5 years and the NOC’s debt has crossed 13 billion rupees by now,” he said. “Despite the increase in the prices, NOC will still be facing a loss of around 60 million rupees a month,” he added.

He claimed that the hike would normalise the supply of petroleum products. “There will be full supply from tomorrow. I am sure there’s won’t be queues in gas stations anymore,” he said.

The price hike came as soon as the Dashain festival was over. The country had been grappling with petroleum shortage for the past several months due to significant cuts in supply by the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) citing the failure of the NOC to clear the outstanding dues.

Last year, the government was forced to withdraw its decision to hike the POL prices in the wake of street protests. nepalnews.com mk Oct 24 07