KATHMANDU, July 21: Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) faced a financial loss in the last fiscal year, following successive six-year gains in its annual financial balance, due to soaring prices of petroleum products in the international market.
Government records show that the state-owned oil monopoly earned profits during fiscal year 2014/15 and 2019/20 with a huge fall in the fuel prices along with implementing the auto-pricing mechanism. Just in 2019/20, it earned a profit of Rs 12.87 billion. However, it underwent a loss of Rs 5 billion in the last fiscal year despite revising the fuel prices 18 times during the period.
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According to NOC officials, the enterprise’s loss in the recent days is mainly due to heavy subsidies being provided in the cooking gas. From the business of liquefied petroleum gas, NOC faces a loss of Rs 319.32 per cylinder at present. While prices of petrol, diesel, kerosene and air turbine fuels were hiked multiple times, NOC was able to raise the price of the cooking gas only twice last year, one in January and the other in July.
Surendra Paudel, managing director of NOC, said they could not revise the price of cooking gas on a par with its price in the international market, so as to give respite to the general people.
