NOC still at a monthly loss of 61 crores

Nepal Oil Corporation has increased the price of diesel and kerosene with effect from last night due to the increase in the purchase price of petroleum products from the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC). The meeting of the board of directors of the corporation on Thursday increased the price of diesel and kerosene by Rs 6 per liter. 

With the price increase, the price of diesel and kerosene has reached Rs 178 per liter. Earlier, the retail price of diesel and kerosene was Rs 172 per liter. The prices of petrol, jet fuel and LPG for cooking have been kept unchanged. The selling price of petrol is Rs 181 per liter, aviation fuel (internal) is Rs 190, aviation fuel (external) is US$ 1.64 and the price of LP gas is Rs 1,800 per cylinder. 

Although refined petroleum products have been on the decline for some time in the international market, the prices have started to rise again in the last 15 days. According to the new price list received by the corporation from IOC on Thursday, the price of petrol has increased by Rs. There has been an increase of Rs 1.39 per liter, diesel Rs 6.12, and aviation fuel Rs 8.1. 

According to the corporation, the prices of kerosene and cooking LP gas have decreased. There is still a loss of 378 rupees 7 paise per cylinder in LP gas and 11 rupees 18 paise per liter in diesel. The corporation has a profit of two rupees 82 paise on petrol. Even after the price adjustment, the corporation is projected to incur a loss of Rs 61 crore in a month.

Due to the inability to pay the amount for the purchase of petroleum products on time, the arrears amount is increasing. Due to the loss of petroleum products for a long time, the corporation said that even after paying the amount collected from daily sales to the IOC, about Rs. 21 billion is yet to be paid as of Wednesday. 

Spokesperson Vinitamani Upadhyay says that the issue of facilitating the supply of petroleum products while paying the outstanding amount of IOC is a challenging issue for the corporation. As the accumulated savings ran out and there was no money to purchase petroleum products, the government provided Rs 7 billion loan to the corporation at the end of last June. In order to facilitate the supply of petroleum products, the corporation also took a loan of Rs. 3 billion from the National Commercial Bank.