Two-day weekend followed supply crunch from Iran war. If it will fuel productivity in Nepal is the concern

Nepal has tried the two-day weekend before—in 1990, in 1999, in 2022 and again now. Each time, it arrived as a crisis measure and left when the crisis faded.

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.