March 31, 2002	Sunday	Muharram 16, 1423

KARACHI, March 30: The Oil Companies Advisory Committee (OCAC) is expected to announce an increase in oil prices in its fortnightly review on Sunday keeping in view the rising global oil prices and finished products in the last 15 days.

Oil analysts at various brokerage houses forecast a price surge of three to five per cent when the OCAC meets on March 31 to announce new prices for the period April 1 to 15. But officials in the Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) and refineries did not offer any comment over the Sunday’s price revision.

Oil prices are currently around six months high at $25 per barrel and these high prices bode well for the oil marketing companies (OMCs), energy analyst at First Capital Research, Zubeida Mirza said.

“I expect that local oil prices to see a three to five per cent increase in the price revision by the OCAC,” she said.

She said that rupee-dollar parity has remained stable in the current fortnight as compared to previous 15 days, thus making no impact on landed price of oil products in Pakistan.

Research Head, Invest Capital and Securities, Mohammad Sohail also shared almost the same view, saying that the international oil and finished product prices have risen by one to two dollar a barrel in the last 15 days, which is likely to be reflected in the fortnightly price revision of the OCAC on March 31.

“Price fixation in diesel will be watched with added interest as the OCAC had not increased its prices in its previous review on March 15 despite increase in global prices,” he said.

The government had notified increase in margin of the OMCs and dealers on all products to 3 per cent and 3.5 per cent respectively and ultimately to 3.5 per cent and 4 per cent in July 2002 just two days ahead of fortnightly price review of March 15.

The OCAC had not fully passed on the impact of increase in margin in order to mitigate the impact of rise in global oil prices on consumers. The OCAC had decided to stagger the increase in all other products except in the case of HSD due to which the overall margin on motor spirit and HOBC had been increased by 10 paisa per litre and for kerosene and LDO the increase had been kept at five paisa per litre.

The fixed sale price of diesel was not increased on March 15 in spite of the increase in global markets and margin rise — as the cargoes were imported and received during the fortnight when prices had not risen.

In another development, the government is considering to gradually narrowing down the difference between the prices of super petrol (MS 87 Ron) and diesel.

The chairman, Pakistan Petroleum Dealers Association (PPDA), Abdul Sami Khan, in a statement, has protested the proposed policy of the government, saying that the charm of difference of prices between the two products is the basic cause of purchasing diesel cars and vehicles.