If you're still having problems purchasing Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), you'll be interested in knowing this: LPG will soon cost more. The Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) is working on a new pricing scheme for LPG, to account for the price hike recently announced by the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC). LPG sold by the IOC now costs $375 per metric ton, up from $280 on 13 October last year, when the NOC raised the price of LPG from Rs 465 to Rs 550 a cylinder. The NOC says it was losing about Rs 102 per cylinder even at the Rs 550 selling price. With the new increase from the Indian side, this will now be in the region of Rs 165. Madan Raj Sharma, the NOC's executive director, says that without subsidies we would have to price LPG at Rs 750, a move that would need to be approved by the government. The NOC buys 3,700 metric tons of LPG from the Indian corporation
every month.

The NOC has also not yet worked out a system to ensure that LPG meant for domestic use does not end up in microbuses and three-wheelers that run on the gas. On average, a 14.2 kg cylinder of gas-enough to meet the cooking needs of a household of five to six persons for a month-powers such vehicles for three to four days. About 1,000 such vehicles plying the Valley's streets have pushed the monthly LPG demand up by about 250 metric tons.