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Despite the government’s initiative to promote electric stoves and electric vehicles so as to reduce the consumption of imported fossil fuels, the import of petroleum products rose sharply in the last fiscal year.

Nepal spent around 17 percent of its total import bill to purchase petroleum products in the last fiscal year. The import was worth over Rs 320.26 billion in the fiscal 2021/22, according to the annual foreign trade statistics released by the Department of Customs on Sunday. This was a 95.12 per cent increase from 2020/21 when the number stood at Rs 164.13 billion

Factors like the rising fuel price in the international market, economic activities returning to normalcy after the lockdown imposed in 2020, and industries' operations getting into full swing have made the country's petroleum import bill costlier.

Three petroleum products - diesel, petrol, and LPG - are the top three import items of the country in FY 2021/22. The department's data shows diesel is Nepal's number one import item.

The country imported diesel worth Rs 168.23 billion in 2021/22, which was an increase of 83 per cent from the previous fiscal year. The worth of petrol imports saw a 120 percent rise to Rs 71.38 billion, while LPG imports increased by 81.32 per cent to Rs 65.55 billion in the last fiscal year.