The Industry, Commerce, Labor and Consumers Rights Committee of the House of Representatives has instructed the government to cut taxes on petroleum products by half.
The committee's meeting on Friday has instructed the Government of Nepal, the Finance Ministry, the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies and the Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) to cut taxes collected in different heads by 50 percent.
The government currently levies Rs 65.61 per liter in petrol and Rs 49.53 in diesel in different kinds of taxes.
NOC Spokesperson Binit Mani Upadhyaya told Setopati that the government will have to slap taxes of only Rs 32.80 per liter after the committee's instruction. He said that petrol can be sold at Rs 166.02-179.78 if that were to happen.
The government similarly collects Rs 320.84 on every cylinder of cooking gas.
The NOC raised the price of petrol by Rs 21 per liter and diesel/kerosene oil by Rs 27 per liter effective from Sunday midnight. The state petroleum monopoly claims it suffers a loss of Rs 13.58 in every liter even while selling petrol at Rs 199.
The House committee on Monday had instructed the government to find measures to minimize the impact of rise in fuel prices on commoners. The market monitoring sub-committee formed under the committee accordingly held a discussion with NOC officials on Friday.
