Due to growing gasoline costs, the Nepali government has decided to reduce taxes on petroleum goods, a minister declared on Friday.
Dilendra Prasad Badu, minister for industry, trade, and supply, told the House of Representatives that a cabinet meeting on Monday backed a plan to alter existing tariffs on petroleum products to reduce gasoline prices.
“The Finance Ministry is doing research to alter taxes,” he added.
Nepal, which depends solely on imported fuels, has raised gasoline costs in recent months in reaction to rising worldwide prices, which has led to increased transport fees and inflation in the South Asian country.
The Nepali government has imposed a number of taxes on petroleum goods, including customs duty, value-added tax, infrastructure tax, and road maintenance tax, but it has not specified how the taxes would be reduced.
According to the minister, despite increased gasoline prices, the Nepal Oil Corporation is still losing 6.71 billion Nepali rupees (54 million US dollars) every month.
On May 22, the firm recorded a cumulative loss of 47 billion Nepali rupees (378 million dollars) from the beginning of the current fiscal year in mid-July 2021.
According to the Department of Customs, Nepal imported petroleum goods worth 243 billion Nepali rupees (1.95 billion dollars) during the first ten months of the fiscal year 2021-22.
