Islamabad: In a bid to provide relief to the masses, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Thursday announced a major cut in the prices of petroleum and products after prices of crude oil fell below $100 per barrel in the international market.
Read: How Oil Prices Could Hit $65
Addressing the nation, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced that the price of petrol was being cut by Rs18.50 and diesel by Rs40.54.
Prime Minister said that they had had no option but to increase prices given the situation of the economy and prices in the international market at that time. He added that the government followed the conditions laid forth by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which were agreed upon by the previous PTI-led government.
However, as the prices of POL dropped recently in the international market, the government decided to pass on the relief to the masses immediately and reduce the prices of petrol and diesel.
Effective July 15 (Friday), the new price of petrol has been fixed at Rs 230.24 per litre against the previous price of Rs 248.74 per litre and that of diesel Rs 236 per litre against the previous price of Rs 276.54 per litre.
The kerosene oil price has been reduced by Rs 33.81 per litre from Rs 230.26 to Rs 196.45 per litre, and the light diesel oil price has been reduced by Rs 34.71 per litre – from Rs 226.15 to Rs 191.44 per litre.
Referring to the agreement with the IMF, PM announced that the federal government reached an agreement with the Fund and credited Finance Minister Miftah Ismail and his team in this regard.
“God willing, this should be our last agreement with the IMF,” Sharif said.
