KATHMANDU Nepal has raised the consumer prices of petroleum products with the new rates effective immediately, the state-run Nepal Oil Corporation said.
The increases, which range from 17.5 percent for petrol to up to 100 percent for kerosene, have prompted protests from the main opposition Communist Party.
NOC said in a statement issued late on Friday that the increase was necessary in order to cut losses caused by higher global fuel prices and a weakening Nepali rupee, which has depreciated by 6.59 percent against the U.S. dollar since last October.
If prices were left unchanged the NOC, which controls all oil imports into the mountainous nation, estimated that losses for 2000/01 (mid-July to mid-July) would reach 3.5 billion Nepali rupees ($47.78 million).
"The increase will help us cut some of our losses," NOC Chief Madan Raj Sharma told Reuters.
Nepal's main opposition party urged the government to roll back the increase in prices of petroleum products or face protests.
"Our party urges the government to immediately withdraw the increase in the prices of petrol, diesel, (cooking) gas and kerosene," the communist Unified Marxist-Leninist (UML) Party, the largest opposition group in Parliament, said in a statement.
The retail price of petrol had been raised seven Nepali rupees a liter to 47 rupees, while diesel prices went up 4.50 rupees to 27.50, an increase of 19.56 percent.
Two rates were fixed for kerosene 15.50 rupees a liter for a monthly quota of three liters to each family for basic needs, and 26 rupees for the open purchase. Kerosene was earlier sold at a single rate of 13 rupees a liter.
The price of a 15kg cylinder of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for cooking was raised 85 rupees to 550 rupees, up 18.27 percent from 465 rupees previously.
The government last year raised diesel and kerosene prices by 48.3 and 23.8 percent, respectively, while petrol had remained unchanged.
The prices of aviation turbine fuel (ATF), which sells at 28.80 rupees a liter, light diesel oil at 24 rupees and furnace oil at 23 rupees have not been changed, Sharma said.
After the price revisions the subsidy was 4.00 rupees per liter on diesel, 9.75 rupees per liter on kerosene sold on the quota and 100 rupees per 15kg LPG cylinder, he said.
Nepal does not produce crude and imports about 800,000 tons of petroleum products annually.
The kingdom's oil import bill fell marginally to 8.123 billion rupees in 1999/2000 from 8.175 billion a year earlier.
Nepal, to help control smuggling, normally keeps the prices of sensitive commodities like petroleum products almost at par with neighboring India with which it shares a 1,580km (987 mile) border.
New Delhi raised its oil prices two weeks ago.
($1=73.25 Nepali rupees) (Reuter)