RAHIM YAR KHAN: Petrol pumps in the district on Sunday cut the prices of petrol and diesel and charged according to the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) direction ahead of the expected visit of a monitoring team.

There are 297 petrol pumps in the district and the owners of these filling stations have been charging up to Rs2 per litre on petrol and diesel higher than the prices fixed by Ogra for the last 12 years. People complained to Ogra many times but no action had been taken.

The citizens were surprised when they visited petrol pumps and purchased the fuel at the ‘right prices’.

A customer, Zulqarnain, told this correspondent that he bought a litre of petrol on Thursday at Rs98.30 but on Sunday he was surprised to find the commodity available at Rs96.70. He said a salesman claimed that a team of Ogra had been in RYK for the last three days and the owner of the petrol pump had asked them to change the rate list on Saturday to avoid action.

A petrol pump owner told this correspondent that the actual rate fixed by Ogra was Rs96.60 per liter for petrol and Rs111.78 per litre for diesel. He said they were forced to sell it at Rs2 per litre higher rate to cover the cost of transportation on the instructions of the District Petroleum Dealers Association.

At the current rates, he said, the petrol pumps could not earn the required profit. He said the filling stations would restore the rates after the visit of Ogra team is over.

Another petrol pump owner blamed it on the deputy commissioners and the association, saying the petroleum dealers greased the palms of the district administration on a monthly basis.

PTI MPA Asif Majeed who heads the District Petroleum Dealers Association told Dawn that no filling station in the district afforded to give up the additional Rs2 margin. He said strict enforcement of rates would force the filling stations to tamper with meters. He said Ogra also had a discriminatory policy as it imposed fines between Rs50,000 and Rs400,000.

He said Ogra should allow the fuel sellers to charge according to ground realities.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2018