February 18, 2007	Sunday	Muharram 29, 1428

ISLAMABAD, Feb 17: The maximum average national price of an 11.8 kg cylinder of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) climbed to Rs715 as against Rs675 in January 2007, statistics division said on Saturday.

Apart from Karachi, Lahore, Hyderabad and Quetta where prices did not record a major growth owing to low transportation charges and other margins, the rest of the country felt the brunt.

The LPG prices went up in the wake of government’s move to link base price of local stock with international market on Jan 3. The consumer price of each cylinder was in the range of Rs450 to Rs470 at the end of November 2006.

Official figures, compiled by the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS), released here on Saturday showed that the average consumer price of LPG cylinder reached Rs715 in Bahawalpur, followed by Rs695 in Sargodha.

With the upward transportation to the northern part from Peshawar, including Chitral, Dir, and some tribal agencies the average price of 11.8 kg cylinder hovered around Rs700, which was one of the sources for heating and cooking in those chilly areas as prices of firewood have already increased.

The statistics division survey did not cover the price movement of goods in these cities and rest of the tribal belt where millions of people use LPG as an alternative fuel for cooking and heating in the rural areas.

There is also no mechanism to stop exploitation of consumers at retail level by the local distributors.

The statistics showed that the price of 11.8 kg cylinder reached Rs660 in Peshawar, Sukkur, Larkana, and Bannu; Rs650 in Khuzdar, Rs640 Gujranwala, and Rs635 in Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Multan and Faisalabad.

However, the consumer price of the cylinder increased only to Rs561 in Karachi, Rs600 in Quetta and Rs605 in Hyderabad and Lahore.

Contrary to the official figures, the distributors associations from Lahore and Karachi were quoting much lower price of 11.8 kg LPG cylinder.

The only cities which witnessed downward revision in LPG price were Karachi and Lahore.

In Pakistan, 1,600 tons of LPG is being produced daily and the total monthly local production reaches 48,000 tons.

Only 4,000 to 5,000 tons is being imported annually to meet the demand and supply gap.