Import of petrol, diesel and LP gas fell by a massive 39 percent, 43 percent and 48 percent in the first five months of 2015/16 compared to the corresponding period of last fiscal year. According to the Department of Customs (DoC), the country imported 66,317 kiloliters (KL) of petrol in the review period compared to 110,459 in the same period last year. Similarly, 169,651 KL of diesel and 52,783 tons of LP gas entered the country in the first five months of 2015/16 compared to 299,530 KL of diesel and 103,084 tons of LP gas in the same period of 2014/15.
Import of petrol and LP gas had been increasing by around 11 percent over the past five years. Similarly, import of diesel had been going up by 8.5 percent annually in the last five years."Though supply of LP gas was affected from the very first day of Tarai unrest, supply of other petroleum products was normal until mid-September 2015," Mukunda Ghimire, spokesperson of Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC), told Republica. "However, supply of petrol, diesel and LP gas worsened after India imposed unofficial economic blockade."
Ghimire said disruption in import of fossil fuel in the first half of 2015/16 will affect overall fossil fuel imports of the entire fiscal year. "Though fuel supply from India is improving in the past couple of weeks, supply has yet to be normal," Ghimire said.
Related story
Methane Melodrama
