The new pricing has lowered import rates, hence, loss of Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) on liquefied petroleum gas. [break]
However, the import rate of diesel has jumped by Rs 2, raising its loss on the fuel to Rs 3 per liter from Re 1.
“Per liter prices of kerosene and petrol too have increased by Re 1 each,” said NOC Spokesperson Mukunda Dhungel. This has lowered the petroleum import monopolist´s profit on petrol to Rs 3 per liter and kerosene to Rs 6 per liter.
Under the new pricing, NOC is incurring a loss of about Rs 135 per cylinder (14.2 kgs) of gas. Previously, the loss per cylinder was Rs 178.
As a result of the new changes, Dhungel told Republica, the corporation´s monthly loss will soar to Rs 110 million in July. The corporation had suffered negligible loss in June.
Given the situation, NOC -- which has been suffering oil loss over the last six months -- urged the government to adjust the domestic prices, particularly in case of LPG and diesel immediately.
But it will not solve the corporation´s problem altogether though. “Mere plugging the gap between import and sales rate will not be enough. We will have to plug the price gap that exists across Nepal-India border as well,” said Dhungel.
Currently, petrol in Nepal cheaper than in India by about two rupees. If the government is to address this concern of NOC, it will need to hike price of petrol as well even though the corporation is enjoying handsome profit from petrol.
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