By Sudeshna Sarkar, IANS
Kathmandu : Within hours of the government announcing a midnight hike in fuel prices, protests erupted in Nepal Thursday with the Maoist rebels calling a partial transport shutdown.
The guerrillas, who pulled out of the government last month and have warned of a revolt, said they were condemning the decision by the state-owned Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) to hike fuel prices from Wednesday midnight and would oppose the move till the government rolled back prices.
The rebels have called a symbolic protest Thursday, calling for an hour’s road blockade in Kathmandu valley from 2 p.m. when they would stop all traffic in the three districts of Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur.
Due to fear of the unrest, the Girija Prasad Koirala government had been baulking at announcing a price rise despite the whopping losses suffered by the NOC.
However, after failing to keep its pledge to hold an election in November and facing drastic reduction in oil supply by Indian Oil Corporation, the sole oil importer to Nepal, it finally took the plunge.
From Thursday, the wholesale price of petrol has gone up by Nepali Rs.6 to cost Rs.73 per litre, diesel is Rs.3 dearer at Rs.55.86 per litre, and kerosene will also cost Rs.3 more at Rs.51 per litre.
Cooking gas is to cost Rs.200 more per cylinder at Rs.1,100.
However, the price of aviation fuel remains unchanged for now.
The hike will help NOC reduce its monthly losses to Rs.70 million a month from Rs.400 million.
The cash-strapped NOC owes Rs.5 billion to the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), as well as Rs.6 billion to government organisations, banks and other entities, from whom it has been frantically borrowing each month to pay the IOC.
“We are asking people not to pay the hiked price,” said Ratna Dhakal, secretary of the powerful student wing of the Maoists, the All Nepal National Independent Students’ Union (Revolutionary).
Dhakal also told IANS that his organisation had begun consultations with the student wings of the ruling parties to chalk out sustained protests opposing the price hike.
Announcing the price hike, Purushottam Ojha, secretary at the ministry, said the “unpleasant decision” was taken after consultations with the ruling parties and the Maoists in an effort to improve fuel supplies.
Ojha also appealed to the youth wings of the parties to support the decision.
However, Dhakal said the Maoists had not been consulted about the price hike.
One of the most powerful groups in Nepal, the Young Communist League affiliated to the Maoists, said it would react after parleys among its leaders.
Dilip, general secretary of the group, said that more than the subsidy, the losses were incurred due to corruption in the NOC, its incompetence and faulty policies.