KARACHI, June 30: The Oil Companies Advisory Committee (OCAC) has increased the price of petrol by Rs3.41 to Rs48.94 while the oil marketing companies (OMCs) have raised the diesel price by Rs2.68 to Rs31.74 per litre. The new prices will be effective from July 1-15, 2005.
The price of kerosene oil has been raised to Rs29.53 from Rs27.98 per litre while the price of light diesel oil (LDO) has been enhanced to Rs27.84 from Rs26.39 per litre. The rate of HOBC has been increased to Rs54.33 from Rs50.52 per litre.
OCAC, in a statement, linked the price hike in domestic POL products to an unprecedented increase in global oil prices. The price of crude touched an all-time high to $55 per barrel and diesel to $67 per barrel.
The government had initially frozen the price in May 2004 till December 2004 and then again during April 2005 till date which has cost the government kitty more than Rs58 billion. It was the government’s last resort to pass on a partial increase.
Despite the fact that the government is not collecting any petroleum development levy (PDL) in the present fortnight as in the past several months — the impact of PDL to be paid by the government to the oil industry would be Rs1.1 billion for the current fortnight, OCAC said.
Despite the increase, which is being passed on to the consumers, the OMCs during the current fortnight continue to subsidize the price of diesel by Rs5.05, kerosene by Rs5.52 and LDO by Rs5.16 per litre.
The balance claim for the oil industry is now approximately Rs6 billion after the government having dispensed Rs10 billion to the oil industry.
The oil prices in the international market since April 2005, when the government had frozen them, have increased by 19 per cent for crude, 12 per cent for kerosene and 17 per cent for diesel, the statement said. Analysts believe that the increase will fuel an inflationary trend in the prices of essential items.
