The NOC´s latest import price and turnover shows that the corporation is still earning a profit of about Rs 400 million a month. “However, the amount will fall short of Rs 150 million for us to meet our monthly debt servicing obligations,” said Mukunda Dhungel, NOC spokesperson.
Going by the corporation´s debt servicing commitment, it needs to pay Rs 500 million in principle and Rs 50 million in interest to its lenders.
NOC profits shrank mainly after the import price of petrol increased by Rs 3.28 and diesel by Rs 2.85 per liter this month.
Under the existing pricing structure, the corporation´s profit on petrol and diesel stand at Rs 11.72 and Rs 3.65 per liter, respectively. In order to stand by its loans repayment plan, the corporation had otherwise set aside a profit margin of Rs 15 per liter of petrol and Rs 6.50 per liter of diesel.
The shortfall, however, will have no bearing on prices, Dhungel told myrepublica.com, adding that the situation was still well within the NOC´s control.
From the profits, the corporation reaped by fixing domestic prices at a higher level. It has served loans of Rs 4.59 billion to the government and financial institutions over the last six months.
The corporation that had gone technically bankrupt during the high oil price era that lasted some four years had outstanding loans worth Rs 15.96 billion to clear about six months ago.
Over this period, it paid about Rs 2 billion to the government, Rs 1.80 billion to banks, about Rs 700 million to the Citizens Investment Trust (CIT) and Rs 150 million to the Employees Provident Fund (EPF).
“Now our loans liability stands at Rs 11.35 billion, including Rs 8.16 billion to the government, Rs 986 million to CIT and Rs 2.20 billion to EPF,” said Dhungel.
The corporation borrowed the money to finance petroleum imports, as the government did not adjust domestic oil prices in line with the international trend. Nepal had suffered an oil loss of about Rs 21 billion during the span of that four years.
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