June 8: The Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has reduced the price of aviation turbine fuel for international flights effective from Sunday midnight (June 7). The NOC informed about this decision by issuing a press statement on Sunday evening.    
According to the state-owned national news agency RSS, a meeting of the NOC Board of Directors on Sunday agreed to endorse a policy of fixing the price of international aviation fuel with a maximum profit of 15 per cent during the COVID-19 crisis.    
Earlier, the price of international aviation fuel was US dollar 893 per kiloliter and now it has been fixed at US dollar 715 per kiloliter. The NOC has reduced the price by USD 178 per kiloliter.    
As of Sunday, the NOC had a 40 per cent profit on international aviation turbine fuel. Earlier, the profit was up to 70 per cent, according to NOC Spokesperson Binit Mani Upadhyay.    
According to him, NOC had earned a profit of Rs 15 million every fortnight in a period of one year of COVID-19 crisis.    
The NOC, however, is incurring an estimated fortnightly loss of Rs 500 million in the transaction of liquefied petroleum gas. This loss was being adjusted from the profit from the aviation turbine fuel, RSS further reported.    
According to the NOC fuel pricing policy, there is an arrangement to compensate the loss of LP gas from the profit of international turbine aviation fuel.