Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has jacked up the prices of petroleum products. The revised rates will come into effect from Friday midnight.

The state-owned monopoly has decided to increase Rs 2 per litre in petrol and Rs3 per litre in diesel and kerosene. Similarly, the NOC has increased Rs25 per cylinder in Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG).

The corporation has increased the aviation fuel sold for domestic and international airlines by Rs5 per litre and $100 per kilolitre, respectively.

With the revised price, petrol now costs Rs100 per litre. Similarly, diesel and kerosene each will cost Rs77 per litre. Cooking gas will cost Rs1,350 per cylinder.

NOC’s Acting Deputy Managing Director Sushil Bhattarai said the NOC’s board meeting decided to revise the prices of petroleum products to offset its ballooning losses.

"The fuel prices were revised in the line with the price list forwarded by Indian Oil Corporation, NOC’s sole supplier,” Bhattarai said. According to NOC, last time it had revised the fuel prices was in July.

“Over the period, fuel prices have increased by 26 to 36 percent due to the rise in the crude oil price in the international market,” said Bhattarai. Crude oil prices have jumped to more than $62 per barrel from $40 per barrel in the international market, he said. “However, we could not raise the price due to the August flood followed by the elections.”

On November 3, NOC had hiked the prices of petroleum products. However, it was forced to roll back the decision in less than 12 hours following Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba’s instruction. 

As it failed to increase the prices, the corporation's monthly projected losses for December have ballooned to Rs1.06 billion. Bhattarai said that the projected losses is expected to come down to Rs420 million after the hike.