Nepal considers two-day govt holiday to curb fuel consumption: Details here

The Nepal government is considering declaring a two-day holiday in public sector offices this month in order to reduce fuel consumption, reports PTI. The Nepal government is mulling the idea as the country is battling a foreign exchange crisis and the prices of petrol and diesel are skyrocketing. The report claims that the Central Bank of Nepal and Nepal Oil Corporation have advised the government to announce a two day government holiday.

The ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, which is going on for more than a month now, has resulted in a major spike in crude oil prices in the international market as Russian oil is under sanction. Other major oil producers such as Iran and Venezuela too are facing sanctions on selling oil. This has resulted in a massive hike in oil prices in Nepal. However, the Nepal government has said officially there is no such decision taken yet.

A move like two day government holidays would result in a significant saving for Nepal Oil Corporation which is selling petrol and diesel at subsidised rates and facing huge losses at the current global rates, claimed the officials.

In India as well, petrol and diesel prices have been shooting skyward in recent times. The oil marketing companies in India restarted daily price revision on March 22 after a four and half month pause since early November. However, in last one month, the OMCs have increased the pricing of both petrol and diesel by ₹10 per litre, moping all the benefits of the last few months. This has resulted in the price of petrol being at an all-time high and diesel too reaching almost ₹100 per litre mark.

However, in the last few days, petrol and diesel prices remain steady and oil marketing companies have paused the daily price revision.