ISLAMABAD – The federal government is expected to revise up the petroleum prices for the second fortnight of August 2023 in line with the upward trend in the international market.
Reports said that the government would raise the petrol and diesel prices by Rs14 to Rs24 per litre, starting from August 16.
The international oil prices massively went up over the past two weeks as the refined products prices surged by $13 per barrel to $111 while per barrel price of petrol rose by $7 to $97.
Currently, the government is receiving Rs55 petroleum levy on petrol and Rs 50 per litre on high speed diesel.
The government has already hiked petrol and HSD prices by nearly Rs20 with effect from August 1, 2023. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan conditions forced the government to pass on rising international commodity prices to local consumers.
On August 1, former finance minister Ishaq Dar had announced a massive increase in petroleum prices for first fortnight of August 2023.
Addressing a press conference, he said petrol price had been increased by Rs19.95 and diesel price by 19.90 per litre.
The new price of petrol had been fixed at Rs272.95 per litre while the price of high speed diesel has surged to Rs273.40.
Dar said it was inevitable for the government to increase the petroleum prices as Pakistan had agreed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on imposing petroleum development levy (PDL) to the prices.
He said the government would have announced decline in petroleum prices, if it had not been engaged with the global lender.
Last month, the Executive Board of the IMF approved a 9-month Stand-By Arrangement (SBA) for Pakistan for an amount of about $3 billion to support the authorities’ economic stabilisation programme. In return, the global lender has laid forth tough conditions on the cash-strapped country.
