National
NOC slashes fuel prices by Rs 2 per litre
Nepal Oil Corporation has slashed gasoline prices effective from Monday midnight.Raju Chaudhary
Nepal Oil Corporation has slashed the prices of petroleum products on Monday. According to the NOC, it has revised the fuel prices based on the new price list sent by the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) on December 1.
NOC spokesperson Birendra Goit said that the prices of petrol, diesel and kerosene have been slashed by Rs2 per litre. The new price will be effective from Monday midnight.
Following the price cut, petrol will now cost Rs112 per litre, while diesel and kerosene will cost Rs99 per litre each. The state-owned oil monopoly, however, has not revised the price of aviation fuel and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG).
On August 19, the NOC had made an upward revision of fuel prices. Immediately after the revision, it had hinted another hike in September due to the appreciation of the US dollar. The Nepali rupee had sunk to an all-time low of 113.89 per dollar in September and kept on climbing up to nearly Rs120 per dollar . However, the dollar then started depreciating. On Sunday, the Nepali rupee was traded at Rs111.65 per dollar.
Nepal’s fuel import bill had jumped 68 percent to Rs69.07 billion in the first four months of the current fiscal year, as a rising dollar, increased smuggling and rising crude oil prices took their toll. Considering the bill for the first quadrimester, this year’s fuel expenses are set to overtake last year’s record spending, officials said.
Oil imports in fiscal 2017-18 reached a record high of Rs172.88 billion, up a whopping 43 percent, according to the statistics of the Trade and Export Promotion Centre (TEPC). Fuel accounted for 14.3 percent of the country’s total import bill of Rs483.75 billion during the period mid-July to mid-November.