ISLAMABAD, Oct 8: Though crude oil price in the international market has dropped to below $80 a barrel from $100, the government has no intention to pass on this relief to the domestic consumers when it will review prices of petroleum products on October 16, sources told Dawn on Wednesday.

During the fortnight review of petroleum prices on Sept 31, the government had kept prices unchanged while it was expected to announce Rs5 per litre reduction in petrol price.

“We have to offset the existing Rs6.2 per litre subsidy on diesel before announcing any reduction in oil prices,” Secretary Petroleum G A Sabri told Dawn.

He said the diesel subsidy for the fortnight was around Rs1.4 billion and that the government would think about removing this cushion before announcing any cut in oil prices.

He said that it was not yet clear that the decline in the international oil prices would remain steady for the next week. But even if it did, the government would think over it while keeping the subsidy on diesel in mind.

On Sept 15, the government had cut the petrol price by Rs5 per litre and increased the prices of high speed diesel (HSD), light diesel oil (LDO) and kerosene by Rs3.50 per litre.

The government is earning Rs19.52 as petroleum development levy on each litre of petrol sold and is paying a subsidy of Rs8.21 per litre on kerosene and Rs7.41 on LDO. It is paying a subsidy of Rs6.42 per litre on HSD. Now consumers are getting petrol at Rs81.66 per litre, diesel Rs68.14, HOBC Rs96.08, kerosene Rs61.87 and LDO Rs60.

On Sept 15, despite 35 per cent drop in the international market price, the government had raised prices of high speed diesel, light diesel oil and kerosene by Rs3.50 per litre each or by 5.4pc, 6.2 per cent and 6 per cent, respectively.

However, the petrol (motor spirit) price was cut by 5.8 per cent or Rs5 per litre. The high octane blending component (HOBC) rates were kept unchanged at Rs96.08 per litre.

With that revision in the prices of petroleum products, the amount of subsidy being provided to the consumers had declined to about Rs2.5 billion per month from Rs4 billion a fortnight ago.