Islamabad: The federal government Tuesday announced to keep the prices of petroleum products “unchanged” for the next fifteen days.
The decision was announced by Federal Minister for Finance Ishaq Dar via a televised message.
As per the decision, the price of petrol remained unchanged at Rs224.80 per litre, high-speed diesel at Rs235.30 per litre, and light diesel oil is Rs191.83 per litre.
What will be the new petrol price in Pakistan?
It must be noted that it was the third time in a row that the government kept the prices unchanged. The last time prices were changed was September 30 when the government slashed the price of petrol by Rs12.63 per litre.
This time prices of crude oil in the international market left very little or no space for the government of Pakistan to pass on relief to the masses in the form of price reductions.
Presently, the government is charging an Rs50 petroleum levy on petrol and Rs12 on diesel. Based on the agreement with the IMF, Pakistan must jack up the levy on diesel to collect the additional revenue.
Govt okays Rs50 PDL levy on high-octane petrol
However, jacking up the levy on diesel to Rs50 from the existing Rs12 will increase the price manifold.
At the same time, the GST on petroleum products is currently at zero. In accordance with the deal with the IMF, the government needs to impose GST on petrol as the petroleum levy on it has already touched the highest level.
Therefore, it is likely that the rate of petroleum levy might see some jump along with an adjustment in exchange losses, which might raise the price of diesel as well as the retail price of petrol in the next fortnightly review of fuel prices.
