Aviation fuel surcharge, taxi fare hike

No sooner than the Airlines Operators Association of Nepal (AOAN) hiked fuel surcharge from today, the government is hiking taxi fare effective from tomorrow.
Though the Department of Transport Management had recommended Ministry of Labour and Transport Management to raise taxi fare by 18 per cent, the ministry is increasing taxi fare by 17 per cent effective from tomorrow, according to Department that said that mounting pressure from meter taxi operators due to rising petroleum prices and other maintenance costs forced the government to hike taxi fare.
The passengers will now have to pay Rs 27 per km. Earlierr it was Rs 23 per km with flag-down fare of Rs 10. The flag-down fare has not been hiked," the department said, adding that fare per 200 meter has increased to Rs 5.4 from earlier Rs 4.6. The government had last hiked taxi fare last March 26.
It has also raised tourist taxi fare to Rs 370 from current Rs 315 for 5 km distance apart from that taxi drivers are allowed to charge an additional Rs 53 per extra km.
Similarly, Airlines Operators Association of Nepal (AOAN) decided to hike fuel surcharge effective from Monday, to cope up with the hike in the price of Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF).
Nepal Oil Corporation has increased Rs 10 per litre from Rs 90 for domestic aviation fuel. AOAN has also expressed its disappointment on NOC''s decision on repeated price hike of ATF that will directly hurt its consumers. The board meeting of NOC on May 7 has decided to increase the price of ATF to Rs 100 per litre. Similarly, ATF (international) has increased to $1275 from $1075 on a kilolitre. With price hike, the state oil monopoly has made a profit of Rs 17.90 on a litre of ATF (domestic). According to member of Nepal Tourism Year 2011 working committee Dhurba Narayan Shrestha, there is hike of Rs 1,000 in domestic and Rs 3,000 in International flights'' fares after addition of fuel surcharge. However, among the 26 international flights Qatar Air is going to make an airfare hike from July 15 only.
Domestic Airlines earlier has increased its fuel surcharge by Rs 180 with rise in the ATF prices by Rs 10 per litre. As per the domestic airlines operators the surcharge has been revised only after a huge hike in the ATF.
However, domestic carriers have increased fuel surcharge by 20 per cent to Rs 775 per ticket from yesterday.
Domestic carriers had not revised fuel surcharge since March when NOC raised ATF price by Rs 10 per liter.
According to regulations, airlines can increase fuel surcharge when ATF price is increased by more than Rs 4 per liter but they can revise airfare only in two years.
Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) reviews airfare every two years on the basis of inflation rate, fuel price and maintenance cost.