ISLAMABAD: The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) on Wednesday recommended up to Rs4.50 per litre reduction in major petroleum products for next month to share the benefit of lower international prices to the consumers.

Based on existing taxes and import parity price of Pakistan State Oil (PSO), Ogra has worked out a decrease of Rs4.5 per litre to Rs102.20 for high-speed diesel (HSD), petrol down by 50 paisa to Rs90.47 per litre, kerosene oil lower by Rs2 to Rs80.98 per litre. On the other hand, light diesel oil (LDO) price has been recommended to be raised up by Re1 to Rs76.28 per litre.

Last month, the government had increased general sales tax (GST) rate on all petroleum products to 17 per cent across the board in order to generate additional revenue of about Rs11bn during the current month. Until Dec 31, 2018, the government was charging 0.5pc GST on LDO, 2pc on kerosene, 8pc on petrol and 13pc on HSD.

Besides the 17pc GST, the government is also charging Rs8 per litre petroleum levy on HSD, Rs10 per litre on petrol and Rs6 and Rs3 per litre on kerosene and LDO, respectively.

Petrol and HSD generate bulk of the revenue because of their massive and yet growing consumption in the country. Total HSD sales are touching 800,000 tonnes per month against monthly consumption of around 700,000 tonnes of petrol while kerosene oil and LDO sales are generally less than 10,000 tonnes.

The petroleum prices have generally been on the rise since early 2017 except for a couple of reductions. Over the last few weeks, the international benchmark Brent prices have tumbled by almost 20pc to less than $60 but the International Monetary Fund is reported to have advised the authorities to raise taxes to create buffers.

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Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2019