NOC pays back Rs 3 billion to EPF and CIT

KATHMANDU:

Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) — the state owned petroleum supply monopoly — paid back three billion rupees out of its total loan to Employees Provident Fund (EPF) and Citizen Investment Trust (CIT), today.

NOC has cleared two billion rupees of EPF and one billion rupees of CIT. After the repayment of the loan today, Nepal Oil Corporation now owes Rs 8.35 billion and Rs 4.93 billion to EPF and CIT, respectively.

NOC has this year already paid three billion rupees to CIT and Rs 1.50 billion to EPF and also cleared outstanding dues worth Rs 3.22 billion of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC). CIT and EPF have been charging high interest rates from NOC as compared to other lenders.

Now, NOC’s total loan stands at Rs 28.16 billion, according to NOC Spokesperson Mukunda Ghimire. -

NOC had borrowed the money to import petroleum products as it faced losses earlier due to market prices being lower than import prices. From September 29 last year, the government enforced the automatic pricing mechanism on fuel prices due to which NOC is now enjoying profits.

Automatic pricing was enforced on petrol, diesel and kerosene.

However, the government has yet to enforce such mechanism on cooking gas and aviation turbine fuel (ATF). Though, ATF is being sold at a profit from the very beginning, NOC incurs a huge loss on cooking gas.

Currently, Nepal Oil Corporation incurs a loss of Rs 41.20 on the sale of each cylinder of cooking gas, consumption of which stands at 1.6 million cylinders a month.

Source: THT