KARACHI, Dec 5: Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is being sold at a high price of Rs42.5 per kilogramme to customers, when its actual retail price should not be more than Rs33.50 per kg, market sources said on Sunday.

Accordingly, the retail price of one cylinder of LPG weighing 11.8 kg should be from Rs370 to Rs395 instead of Rs485, they said. The per kg price was higher by Rs9 while the cylinder price was up by at least Rs230 per cylinder, they observed.

Retail sources said that marketing companies bought LPG at Rs19,500 per tonne from local refineries and filled 85 cylinders from one tonne of LPG. They sell one cylinder to distributors at Rs470 who then sell it at Rs485 to customers.

A local distributor said the filling cost of one cylinder of LPG to marketing companies was about Rs230, which was sold to distributors at Rs460, earning a huge profit of Rs230 on each cylinder.

However, an LPG importer said the landing cost of imported LPG was about Rs42,500 per tonne and that of locally produced LPG was Rs19,500 per tonne. "We sell a mixture of imported and locally produced LPG. The prices are, therefore, high."

Distributors, however, alleged that imported LPG could be sold at a higher price, but locally produced LPG should be sold at lower prices to bring it within the reach of poor consumers. The local production of LPG was about 1,000 tonnes per day, while its consumption was double, especially in the winter season in upcountry. - APP