October 1, 2002	Tuesday	Rajab 23, 1423

KARACHI, Sept 30: The Oil Companies Advisory Committee (OCAC) on Monday deferred the fortnightly price announcement without giving any reasons.

The committee issued an statement which read as “that the price announcement would not be made today.” The statement did not mention any reason of holding back the revision of petroleum products prices.

An OCAC official said that the meeting of committee’s representatives was held as usual but the officials left for their homes without finalizing any prices for the next fortnight.

This is for the second time that dilly-dallying tactics have been adopted by the OCAC on the pressure of the Petroleum Ministry. In the last price adjustment, the OCAC had taken at least four days to announce the prices on September 19 instead of September 15.

One of the officials in the OCAC had attributed the delay to Petroleum Ministry “calculations”. Cutting down of petroleum development levy (PDL) on various oil products was actually the “calculation” that had been made to mitigate the international price spiral impact on consumer prices.

Oil prices have been surging up since the last two to three weeks in view of possible US attack on Iraq. As a result of this domestic oil prices are set to rise again.

It will be difficult for the government to again cut the PDL for the second time in the last 15 days, an oil analysts said.