Student organizations in Nepal have been conducting protest programs against government's recent price hike of petroleum products in Nepal.

With the recent price hike, the market price of petrol is now at $1.2 per liter.

Agitated students have launched series of protest programs calling attention from the government to reduce price hike including stalling of vehicular movement and banning government vehicles to ply on the streets.

According to KP Lamichhane, leader of Nepal Students Organization, the protest programs will continue until the government addresses their demand of relieving the price hike.

The Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) imports oil from Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) which is the sole supplier for petroleum products in Nepal.

The NOC had been incurring huge losses as it failed to comply with the global market price of petroleum products.

Earlier this week, the corporation hiked the price of petroleum products following directives from IOC.

With the revision of petroleum prices, the monthly projected loss of NOC has declined to $8 million from $10 million.

However, an Indian website Indiatimes.com quoted an official as saying that the oil ministry in India has proposed to the cabinet that diesel, cooking gas and kerosene prices should be raised immediately after September 7 when the monsoon session of parliament ends that may also see a hike in petrol prices.

If the prices of petrol are hiked in India, it puts the Nepalese government and NOC in a difficult position as NOC is already in huge debt with IOC while it also has to keep into account the national demand of petroleum products with reasonable pricing.