SANGAM

Petrol, diesel dearer, LPG spared

SANGAM PRASAIN

KATHMANDU, JUL 07 - Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has revised oil prices effective from Tuesday. The state-owned monopoly has increased the price of petrol by Rs. 3 per litre and diesel and kerosene by Rs. 2.50 per litre citing mounting losses due to poor supply. 
Petrol now costs Rs. 85 per litre and diesel and kerosene both Rs. 65.50 per litre. Prices are lower by Rs. 1.50 per litre in the Tarai. With the hiked rates, NOC will make a monthly profit of Rs. 79.9 million, said deputy managing director Bachhu Kumar Kafle.
He added that NOC makes a profit of Rs. 5 per litre on petrol, Rs. 0.76 on diesel, Rs. 8 on kerosene and Rs. 16 on aviation fuel. However, NOC still incurs a loss of Rs. 130 on a cylinder of LPG, Kafle said. NOC said it would not hike the price of LPG immediately. “The government has provided Rs. 800 million to adjust the price of LPG, and increased profits on gasoline will help offset the losses incurred in cooking gas,” said Purushottam Ojha, secretary at the Ministry of Supplies.
NOC said its losses in the current fiscal had reached Rs. 1.16 billion. The company also has outstanding loans of Rs. 10.74 billion.
With the country crippled by a petroleum shortage for more than a week, NOC hiked the prices saying that the deficit had been caused by India Oil Corporation’s (IOC) move to cut deliveries by 50-60 percent as NOC had fallen behind in its payments.
Kafle said they revised the prices in line with the recent hike made by IOC. The Indian supplier had revised its prices on July 1 resulting in monthly losses of Rs. 100 million to NOC. He added that it had become necessary to raise the rates as fuel was cheaper in Nepal and this was encouraging smuggling to India. “This revision has not been induced by international prices. We have been forced to hike the rates as we were short of cash to import fuel,” Kafle said.
According to NOC, it imported 957,711.91 kl of petroleum products in the first 11 months of the current fiscal including 553,117 kl and 147,189 kl of diesel and petrol respectively, 128,296 tons of LPG and 76,008 kl of aviation fuel.

Revised Rates

Year           Petrol        Diesel       Kerosene
                    (Rs/Lt)      (Rs/Lt)         (Rs/Lt)
2003               56             33.50          27
2004               62             41               36
2005               67             46               39
2006               67             52.50          47.65
2007-Oct       73.50         56.25          51.20
2007-Dec       80              56.25          51.20
2008              100             70               65
2008-Dec      85.50         60.50          60.50
2009              77.50          57.50          57.50
2010-Feb      77.50           59               59
2010-Mar      80                61               61
2010-Apr       82               63                63
2010-July       85               65.50           65.50

Source: NOC