ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to keep prices of all petroleum products unchanged for June, in order to ensure price stability during Ramazan, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said.

“In line with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s policy of providing maximum relief to the people, it has been decided that prices of petroleum products will not be increased on June 1,” Mr Dar said.

The government would absorb the full impact of its decision to keep the prices unchanged, he said.

In particular, Mr Dar said, the federal government’s decision not to increase the price of high speed diesel (HSD), which was proposed to be enhanced by Rs6.69 per litre, would help the provincial governments to ensure price stability during Ramazan on this account.

Therefore, the price of petrol would remain unchanged at Rs64.27 per litre, that of HSD at Rs72.52, light diesel oil at Rs37.97, high octane blending component at Rs72.68 and kerosene oil at Rs43.25 per litre.

The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) had worked out an increase of 14.6 per cent in the price of JP-1, taking it to Rs44.53 per litre. The price of JP-4 was proposed to be increased by 9pc to Rs38.84 per litre, while that of JP-8 to Rs42.07 after an increase of 12.6pc.

Meanwhile, the government may double petroleum levy on all petroleum products with effect from July 1 under the next year’s budget to enhance its recoveries to Rs270 billion from Rs135bn.

A government official said the petroleum and finance ministries had finalised a plan for increasing the petroleum levy for inclusion in the budget proposals for 2016-17.

He said the petroleum levy, currently permissible at a maximum rate of Rs10 per litre, would be increased to Rs20 per litre.

The official said the target for collection of petroleum levy for next year was being set at Rs270bn to take maximum benefit of lower oil prices in the international market.

Published in Dawn, June 1st, 2016