By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Mar. 17: The state-owned petroleum supplier - Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC), has projected its monthly loss at Rs. 10.60 billion from the sale of petroleum products.
Owing to significant price hike of petroleum products in the international market, monthly loss on the sale of petroleum products of the NOC has been rising and will reach Rs. 10.60 billion, said Binitmani Upadhyay, spokesperson of NOC, on Wednesday.

The purchase price of petroleum products has reached an all-time high due to the addition of various taxes to the new price received from the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) on Wednesday.
The IOC sends the NOC the price structure twice a month. As per the new price list, the corporation will bear a loss of Rs. 5.30 billion in a fortnight, he said.
Prices of petrol, diesel and aviation fuel have gone up due to rising crude oil prices in the international market, he said.

Diesel price has gone up by Rs. 16.37 per litre, petrol by Rs. 24.49 per litre and aviation fuel by 18.89 per litre.
As per the new price structure, the loss on sale of petrol has increased to Rs. 32.81 per litre, diesel to Rs. 36.44 per litre and cooking gas to Rs. 665.34 per cylinder.

However, the NOC will make a profit of Rs. 19.51 per litre in kerosene, Rs. 4.06 per litre in aviation fuel (domestic flight) and Rs. 43.84 per litre in aviation fuel (international flights).
The NOC will face a loss of Rs. 1.07 billion from the sale of petrol, Rs. 3.16 billion from the sale of diesel and Rs. 1.26 billion from the sale of cooking gas in 15 days, he said.
"With the rising loss of NOC due to fuel price hike in the international market, we are under pressure to hike the price again," he said.

Earlier on March 3, the NOC had increased the price of petrol, diesel and kerosene by Rs. 5 per litre each. Currently, the NOC is selling petrol at Rs. 150 per litre, diesel and kerosene at Rs. 133 per litre each. 
The corporation has been adjusting fuel prices under the auto-pricing system.