April 2, 2006	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 3, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, April 1: The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources on Friday informed the National Assembly’s Standing Committee that the government collected Rs6.6 billion Petroleum Development Levy against the budgeted target of Rs47.5 billion during last financial year.

The standing committee on petroleum and natural Resources, which met with its chairperson, Noorjahan Panezai in the chair, to discuss the increasing trend in domestic oil prices.

The members of the standing committee unanimously expressed their deep concern over the perpetual increase in the prices of petroleum products and recommended that the government should control this increase and provide relief to the common people of the country.

The ministry said the Oil Company Advisory Committee (OCAC) was authorized to review and fix the prices of the petroleum products on fortnightly basis under the vigilance of the government but now Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) would fix the prices of the petroleum products from April 1.

It said that if Re1 was increased on one particular item, the government would earn profit to the tune of Rs900 million.

Even now the government was selling the petroleum products at less than the rates prevailing in the international market.

The government had to suffer accumulated loss of about Rs64 billion (including around Rs22 billion price differential claim) till March 2006 to protect the consumer from the burden of high prices of petroleum products in international market, it said.

Keeping in view the continuous increasing trend in international market, the government decided to protect the consumer from the impact of high prices and capped the domestic sale prices during the period May-December 2004, April-June 2005, July 16- August 16 2005, September 16 - October 2005 to March 2006.

The government was fully conscious of the concerns of the public and all necessary measures were being taken to protect the consumer interest as well as the government revenue position.

Besides the chairperson, the meeting was also attended by Khawaja Sheraz Mehmood, MNA, Ch. Liaquat Abbas Bhatti, MNA, Mrs. Rahila Yahaya Munawar, MNA, Mst.Rubina Shaheen Wattoo, MNA, Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haidri, MNA, Pir Syed Fazal Ali Shah Jeelani, MNA, Raja Pervez Ashraf, MNA, Rana Mehmood-ul-Hassan, MNA, Haji Gul Muhammad Dummar, MNA, Mr.Bilal Ahmad Virk and the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources was represented by the Mir Muhammad Naseer Mengal, Minister of State.