Within two days of the announcement, the government of Nepal has decided to remove the newly imposed prices on various oil products as it caused serious political unrest around the country. On Saturday, Nepal government has decided to raise the price of diesel oil and cooking oil in order to cut losses of the state owned Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC). The company sales oil at subsidized prices. It causes huge loss to the company. In addition, it has a debt of $ 213 million to Indian Oil Corporation. Due to these reasons, the price rise was necessary. According to the report published in The Australian.news.com, yesterday, 1.5 million people in Kathmandu demonstrated a protest against the price hike and today hundreds of people came out and burnt down vehicles and tires and threw bricks. Looking at this negative response, the members of the parliament of Nepal asked to withdraw the new price. They referred it as an “anti-people” move.
“Let’s hope that this price hike does not lead to any political instability.” This was the last line of my post titled “Nepal raises Oil Price.” Today, the Nepalese government has decided to remove the price in the face of protest. Rise in the price of fuel does not only hurt the car owners. It affects all the people: upper, middle, and lower class, of the country. Nepal is situated in the Himalayan region and truck is the main source of transportation over there. It is natural that such a decision would be opposed with a serious violence. Nepal’s main source of income is tourism and I am afraid this violence would once again cause panic among tourists.
Nepal has been undergoing some serious political turmoil lately. I too wish that it would stop before it breeds more dire consequences.
Posted by: nepspeed82 | August 21, 2006 1:14 PM | Permalink to Comment