ISLAMABAD: Reversing its earlier decision, the caretaker governmenton Monday announ­ced an increase in the prices of petroleum products in the range of four to seven per cent to be effective from June 12.

Almost reversing it three-day earlier decision, the caretaker government on Monday increased petrol price to Rs91.96, an increase of 4.9pc or Rs4.46 from existing price of Rs87.7 per litre; high-speed diesel (HSD) by 6.6pc or Rs6.66 to Rs105.31 per litre from Rs98.76; kerosene by 5.6pc or Rs4.46 to Rs84.34 per litre from Rs79.87.

The price of light diesel oil was increased by 8.9c or Rs6.14 to Rs74.99 per litre from Rs68.85.

An official announcement issued by the Finance Division said that the prices were increased in line with the international market trend.

The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) had proposed an increase in the price of petrol by Rs8.37 per litre, HSD by Rs12.50 per litre, kerosene by Rs8.22 per litre and light diesel oil by Rs11.65 per litre for June.

According to a statement the caretaker government has decided to pass only a partial impact of increase to provide relief to the common man in the holy month of Ramazan and it will absorb 50pc of impact of the increase effective from June 1.

On May 31, the general sales tax rates on petroleum products were also reduced substantially. However, through a notification these rates were also revised upward.

According to the sales tax notification, the GST was raised to 24pc from 17pc on HSD; on petrol the rate was revised upward to 12pc from 7pc; on kerosene it was increased to 12pc from 7pc while in the case of light diesel oil it was increased to 9pc from 1pc.

Commuters will face the immediate impact of the re-priced petroleum products as transporters will increase fares ahead of the Eidul Fitr.

The new increase in the prices came at a time when the caretaker government was not happy with the decision of the PML-N government who did not announce the increase in the prices of petroleum products and left this unpopular decision to the caretaker setup.

The PML-N government on its last day on May 31 had cleared several summaries but was unwilling to take the blame of increasing oil prices. As a result, it was decided to keep the oil prices unchanged until June 7.

Published in Dawn, June 12th, 2018