The state-owned fuel monopolist, which presently supplies 88-octane petrol, had last year announced to introduce 91-octane petrol from April, 2010. It had also promised to supply diesel of Euro III standard, which contains low sulfur than existing Euro II diesel that contains 0.5 percent sulfur. But NOC has now said that it would introduce the better fuel by October this year. [break]
“We had to postpone the schedule after the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), the sole supplier of oil to Nepal, sought additional time to upscale its refineries and produce upgraded products,” said an official at NOC.
He informed myrepublica.com that IOC has communicated to NOC that it is pushing to complete upgrading its refineries, particularly the Barauni Refinery from which Nepal receives the bulk of supplies, by June.
Even if it failed to meet this target, it will have the conversion completed by October 1, going by the new directives of the Indian government.
The announcement, meanwhile, has forced the consumers to bear with the cost of low-octane fuel. It has also disappointed the automobiles dealers who had long being demanding NOC to bring in Euro III fuel to ensure longevity of engines and vehicles.
Apart from providing relief to consumers and vehicle dealers, petrol and diesel of Euro III standard is also said to be eco-friendly as they emit low carbon monoxide and harmful particulates.
Though delayed, the upgrading of fuel standard will come at the cost of increase in the prices of petrol and diesel in the market. Though NOC has not clarified yet how dearer the new supply will be, officials said they estimate the prices of both diesel and petrol to go up by about Rs 3 per liter from present import prices.
This means the change could raise cost for NOC as well because it is already suffering a loss of 10 paisa on a liter of petrol and over Rs 3 per liter of diesel in the absence of timely adjustment of domestic prices.
NOC hopes consumers will not resist the due rise in prices, especially given the benefits of the high octane fuel. It further claimed that upgrading the standard of fuel will relieve vehicle owners and dealers from a host of problems, such as undue wear and tear of fuel pump and engine.
Owing to low grade fuel, high-end vehicle owners have been lamenting that they are not being able to enjoy the extent of efficiency the engines promised. Instead, the low grade fuel is also making the life of engine shorter and causing damages, thereby increasing operational costs.
Automobiles dealers also say they were facing problems in introducing latest brands of vehicles with sophisticated engines because of the non-availability of high grade fuel here.
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