As per the scheme, students in rural and urban areas will be provided subsidies on kerosene and cooking gas respectively. Only students enrolled in government schools in urban areas will be eligible for the scheme, according to the Ministry of Commerce and Supplies (MoCS).

Apart from students, subsidies have also been planned for workers and farmers. According to Minister of Commerce and Supplies Lekh Raj Bhatta, classification of workers and farmers will be conducted by the MoCS.

 

Under the subsidy scheme, the government will provide a discount of Rs 10 per litre of kerosene and Rs 200 per cylinder of cooking gas. “The guideline for the subsidy regime will be prepared within a month, and will be passed by the Cabinet,” said Bhatta.

 

Addressing a press meet here on Tuesday, Minister for Commerce and Supplies Lekh Raj Bhatta however ruled out a rollback in the prices.  He however, said Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai has ordered formation of a concrete action plan to allocate subsidies to students, low-income groups and ‘others eligible’ by Wednesday.

 

Meanwhile, the government has formed a panel to revise fuel prices with student demonstrations against the price hike intensifying. A panel headed by the National Planning Commission and including secretaries from the ministries of Finance, Energy and Supplies as members will study the issue.

 

On January 19, the Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) ramped up fuel prices to make up for its piling losses. Following the hike, diesel and kerosene price has reached Rs 85 per litre from Rs 76 earlier, while petrol now costs Rs 115 per litre, up from Rs 105. The price of cooking gas has been increased to Rs 1,500 per cylinder from Rs 1,325 and aviation fuel price to Rs 105 per litre from Rs 100.

 

The general public are likely to be affected as the fuel price hike will fuel inflation. And, the effects are already visible. The government recently reached an agreement with public transporters to hike transport fare by 5 percent and airline operators have already hiked fuel surcharge.

 

However, the petroleum price revision will bring down NOC’s monthly losses to Rs 860 million, which it said was at Rs 1.76 billion. The corporation claimed to have been losing Rs 1.76 billion every month by selling fuel below the cost price.