ISLAMABAD, June 22: Pakistan has refused to import diesel from India for the time being, either through land or sea route, owing mainly to its higher rates. The decision was conveyed to New Delhi during Indian oil minister Mani Shankar Aiyar’s visit to Islamabad early this month, a senior government official told Dawn on Wednesday.

“Although the import of diesel from India continues to be in the Commerce Ministry’s negative list, the price offered to Pakistan by India is much higher than the Middle Eastern rates,” said the official requesting not to be identified.

He said Indian diesel was about $3-4 per ton costlier than that of Kuwait and other Arab countries. The question relating to removal of import of Indian diesel from the negative list may be taken up when the foreign secretaries of the two countries meet later this year as part of composite dialogue, he said.

Even if India reduces its prices, the import of diesel from New Delhi through land route is not possible in the foreseeable future owing to Pakistan’s internal commitments, the official said.

Explaining the reason for not using the land route for diesel import from India, the official said the federal government had given a throughput guarantee of 4.5 million tonnes per annum for the $780 million White Oil Pipeline Project (WOPP) from Port Qasim to Multan.

In case high speed diesel is imported through land route, the government will have to pay throughput charge to the WOPP for the under-utilized capacity. In that case, any expected saving in transportation charges from diesel import from India through tankers or pipeline to Lahore would stand neutralized.

The sources said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and security agencies had recently advised the government that a coordinated policy on import of petroleum products should be adopted keeping in view diplomatic, political and economic implications for overall progress of India-Pakistan relations.

Indian Oil Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar had asked his counterpart Amanullah Khan Jadoon to import diesel from Gujarat and Haryana to Pakistan through land and sea routes by removing the product from the “negative list of permissible imports from India”.

New Delhi had informed that it had surplus refining capacity available in both public and private sectors near borders with Pakistan in the states of Gujarat (Jamnagar) and Haryana (Panipat). Moreover, the Indian Oil Corporation has a major depot at Jalandhar.

India had offered to supply diesel to Karachi by sea from Jamnagar and by tankers from Jalandhar to Lahore. The Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) had separately asked Pakistan State Oil (PSO) to include its name in the list of pre-qualified suppliers.