NOC losses touch nearly Rs 5 billion

KATHMANDU, FEB 20: 

Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) incurred a loss of Rs 4.95 billion during the first six and a half months of the current fiscal year 2011-12.

The total loss of the corporation will double this year when compared to the last fiscal year, if the current trend continues, acting managing director at the corporation Suresh Kumar Agrawal said. The corporation had incurred a total loss of Rs 5.10 billion in the last fiscal year.

The accumulative loss of the corporation has reached Rs 21.92 billion till the end of January, said Agrawal. The corporation incurred a loss of Rs 242 million from July 15 to the end of July, he said.

Similarly, NOC witnessed a total loss of Rs 381.2 million in August, Rs 539.9 million in September, Rs 505.2 million in October, Rs 939 million in November, Rs 1.18 billion in December and Rs 1.15 billion in January.

“The corporation has to pay an interest of Rs 1.67 billion to its lenders,” said Agrawal. The Nepali government has provided the highest amount of loan which amounts to Rs 10.74 billion to the corporation followed by Employees’ Provident Fund Rs 6.40 billion, Citizen Investment Trust Rs 2.88 billion and some commercial banks Rs 1.90 billion, according to the corporation. The amount of loan provided by Citizen Investment Trust will increase to Rs 4.13 

billion once it releases the amount approved by the cabinet to the sate oil monopoly. It has already released Rs 750 million out of the Rs 2 billion to the corporation so far.

Meanwhile, the loss of NOC has dropped by Rs 20 million according to the February 16 price list forwarded by Indian Oil Corporation – the sole supplier of petroleum products to NOC. The loss on a litre of diesel – the most consumed fuel in the domestic market – has dropped by Rs 1.1 and the loss on a litre of petrol has declined by Rs 0.49 compared to the price list of February 1.

Nepali market consumes 65,000 kl diesel and 17,000 kl petrol every month, according to the projection of Nepal Oil Corporation. It is good news for the state oil monopoly that the price of petroleum products remained almost unchanged at a time when there was huge speculation that prices would rise, the corporation source said.

Source: THT