Kathmandu, May 9 -- When the Nepal government announced a two-day weekend on April 5, it had one primary goal: save fuel. Whether it is actually working is a different question altogether. According to Nepal Oil Corporation data, Nepal imports over 752,000 kiloliters of petrol and 1.4 million kiloliters of diesel annually-a fuel burden that, combined with what NOC spokesperson Manoj Thakur described as tentative losses of around Rs30 billion, made reducing consumption a matter of urgency for the government.

According to Thakur, a comparison of fuel data from 15 days before and after April 5 showed petrol consumption actually rose by three percent, while diesel consumption fell by roughly 19 percent. A longer 21-day comparison showed petr...