NOC monthly projected loss jumps to Rs 330m
KATHMANDU, JAN 17 -
The monthly projected loss of Nepal Oil Corporation ( NOC ) jumped to Rs 330 million as per the latest tariff sent by its sole supplier Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) on Wednesday. The monthly loss was estimated to amount to Rs 232 million before the price revision.
IOC reviews export prices of petrol and diesel fortnightly and of other products such as kerosene, aviation fuel and LPG on a monthly basis.
As per the revised tariff, NOC said it would be losing Rs 1.22 on a litre of diesel compared to its previous loss of Rs 0.20 per litre. Its profit on petrol has dropped to Rs 7.96 per litre from Rs 9.89. The corporation suffers a loss of Rs 604 per cylinder of LPG. The estimated losses are based on the monthly projected consumption of 65,000 kl of diesel and 1.2 million LPG cylinders.
Apart from petrol, the state-owned oil monopoly enjoys a profit of Rs 13.84 on a litre of kerosene and Rs 24.90 on a litre of aviation fuel sold to domestic airlines.
NOC spokesperson Shiva Prasad Pudasaini attributed the projected loss to a fluctuation in fuel prices in the international market due to a weaker US dollar.
Meanwhile, import of petroleum product to Nepal jumped 24.4 percent to Rs 40.78 billion in the first five months of the current fiscal year, according to the statistics of Nepal Rastra Bank. Import was at Rs 32.77 billion in the corresponding period last fiscal year.
Colour-coded LPG cylinders
Nepal Oil Corporation said a number of LPG bottlers had agreed to implement the colour-coded LPG cylinder system. However, some bottlers with large stocks of cylinders are still hesitant to implement it. The government had announced last year that it would introduce colour-coded LPG cylinders (red for private consumers and blue for commercial users) in a bid to regulate the LPG market. “We have been urging the bottlers to abide by the government directive, and a number of them are positive about it,” said NOC spokesperson Shiva Prasad Pudasaini. “We are still making efforts to convince the big players.” NOC had recently cut the purchase delivery orders of a number of bottlers for their reluctance to follow the directive.
Source: The Kathmandu Post
