Kathmandu, Nepal: Nepal has nearly doubled aviation fuel prices as global energy costs surge during the Middle East war, officials said Thursday, raising fears of a fresh blow to its tourism-dependent economy.
The landlocked Himalayan nation of 30 million relies almost entirely on India for its fossil fuel supplies, leaving it exposed to international price shocks.
"Aviation fuel prices have increased," Manoj Kumar Thakur, spokesman for the state-owned Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC), told AFP.
Jet fuel price has risen by 97.6 percent, from 127 Nepali rupees ($0.86) per litre to 251 rupees ($1.69), NOC said in a statement.
Thakur said while fuel supplies remained stable, the corporation was incurring heavy losses on other petroleum products despite some price hikes last week.
The corporation had already lost five billion rupees ($33 million) in the past two weeks, he said.
Last month, Nepal began selling half-filled cooking gas cylinders to discourage hoarding and panic buying, and officials are now urging the public to cut back on fuel use.
"We are a landlocked country and we are fully dependent on India for petrol, diesel and LPG. The only way out is reducing consumption," Thakur said.
The steep jet fuel hike, expected to push up airfares, comes just ahead of the peak tourist season, when hundreds of climbers and trekkers arrive in Nepal.
"Less domestic and foreign tourists will choose air travel, and this will have a direct impact on the country's tourism industry," said Pratap Jung Pandey, President of the Airlines Operators Association of Nepal.
More than four million passengers travel on Nepal's domestic airlines each year, according to the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal.
The crisis has also stirred concern over the safety of more than 1.7 million Nepalis working in Middle East countries, after one Nepali was killed in a strike in the United Arab Emirates last month.
