ISLAMABAD, Sept 9: The government increased on Sunday prices of four major petroleum products by up to three per cent and reduced rates for petrol and CNG by up to 4.46 per cent with immediate effect to pass on the impact of international price fluctuation to consumers.

The revised prices will remain in place for a week until next Sunday under a weekly pricing mechanism approved by the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet, but opposed by the standing committees of the Senate and the National Assembly.

The government also did not honour the recommendations of the two parliamentary committees for bringing down the petroleum prices to the July 31 level.

The Senate standing committee on petroleum has called a special meeting on Monday on the issue for a briefing by ministries of petroleum and finance and Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra).

Interestingly, neither the ministry of petroleum nor Ogra issued a formal notification about price changes except for kerosene and CNG that were notified by Ogra after the petroleum ministry declined to reduce petroleum levy on any of the products.

Officials said the prices of diesel, petrol, high octane blending component and light diesel had been deregulated by the government and hence price changes were affected by the oil marketing companies at their own.

They, however, said the new prices of all products were cleared by the ministries of petroleum and finance after vetting by Ogra on the basis of calculations made by the marketing companies.

As a result of the new mechanism, the highest increase of more than three per cent was affected in the price of high speed diesel (HSD), which went up by Rs3.39 per litre to Rs115.52 per litre from existing rate of Rs112.13.

The price of kerosene hit a new record at Rs104.06 per litre, up by Rs1.85 per litre or 1.8 per cent from Rs102.21.

The HOBC price also touched a new peak at Rs136.46 per litre from existing rate of Rs133.19, showing an increase of Rs3.27 per litre or 2.45 per cent.

The price of light diesel oil (LDO) increased by 57 paisa per litre from Rs98.84 per litre to Rs99.41, up by 0.57 per cent.

Price cuts

The price of petrol was reduced by 4.45 per cent, or Rs4.65 per litre, to Rs99.90 from Rs104.55 per litre.In line with reduction in petrol rates, the cost of natural gas for CNG stations was also brought down to Rs684.09 per million British thermal unit (MMBTU) from Rs744.32 per MMBTU, down by Rs60.24 per MMBTU or about 8 per cent.

As a result, a notification issued by Ogra said the price of CNG had been reduced from Rs95.72 per kg to Rs91.45 per kg for Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Potohar and Balochistan (Zone-I), down by Rs4.27 per kg or 4.46 per cent. Likewise, the CNG rates for Punjab and Sindh (Zone-II) were also cut by Rs3.89 per kg or 4.45 per cent from Rs87.44 per kg to Rs83.55.

Ghiyas Abdullah Paracha, chairman of the All Pakistan CNG Stations Association, accused the gas companies of avoiding meter reading at the time of price change despite requests by the CNG owners to record gas consumption at the time of each revision.

“This is creating confusion because unless there is proper meter reading, the transparency of billing becomes non-transparent and questionable.”

The government is currently charging petroleum levy at the rate of Rs10 per litre on petrol, Rs14 on HOBC, Rs6 on kerosene and Rs8 on HSD.

In addition, the government also collects 16 per cent general sales tax on all products that fluctuates between Rs17-22 on various products according to change in prices.