KARACHI, Jan 21: The Pakistan State Oil has expressed its willingness to pass relief on to consumers provided the government allows it to do so.

In a press release issued by the PSO here on Monday, a spokesman says that the oil pricing mechanism devised by the government leaves little room for the PSO to either “withhold the relief from public or make an extra profit”.

He says: “Consequently, the consumers are penalized and so is the PSO as it neither retains the differential nor is able to pass the differential to the consumers.”

Responding to a news-item in Monday’s issue of Dawn, the spokesman says: “If given an opportunity the PSO is straightaway prepared to sell on its terms and pass over all benefits of the cheapest import price to consumers.”

He elaborates: “The price structure for diesel is based on the formula of weighted average being followed by the Oil Companies Advisory Committee (OCAC).

“This means that the prices on which diesel has been acquired by all the oil-marketing companies are added up and then averaged on the basis of total quantity imported by the number of the participating companies.

“The PSO has been acquiring diesel at highly competitive prices but is unable to pass on the accruing benefit to consumers because of the fact that oil-marketing companies are unable to match the PSO’s terms and, as a result, the price announced by the OCAC is much higher than the price at which the PSO imports.”