ISLAMABAD, Sept 15: The government has directed the ministry of petroleum and the Central Board of Revenue (CBR) to examine the impact of a proposal to observe two holidays a week to reduce oil consumption.

The directive was issued by Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance Dr Salman Shah during a meeting here.

Other proposals to be considered include a reduction in margin of oil marketing companies and dealers, conversion of buses and trucks to CNG and efficient running of thermal power plants.

The CBR and petroleum ministry were asked to jointly formulate recommendations after analyzing the impact of each option.

The petroleum ministry pointed out in a presentation that with the increase in oil prices, the margin of oil marketing companies and dealers had risen substantially.

The sources said the oil marketing companies and dealers could be involved in a dialogue to reduce their margins for an interim period given the extraordinary situation arising out of volatile oil market.

However, a unilateral reduction in margins was considered ill-advised “because it would send a wrong message to the industry”.

The sources said there would definitely be a positive impact of reducing weekly working days to five from six as it would provide saving in terms of fuel consumption, transportation and electricity utilization. The point to be examined was whether such a saving was higher than six-day working output.

The highest burden was that of diesel consumption, the sources said, which had been termed “killer fuel” in terms of its cost.