Pakistan State Oil (PSO) on Friday reported that its unconsolidated profit for fiscal year 2022 after tax deduction came in at Rs86.22 billion, a 196 per cent increase from last year’s Rs29.13bn.

According to the company filing available on the Pakistan Stock Exchange website, PSO’s net sales during the year rose to Rs2.45 trillion compared to Rs1.2tr last year, which equates to a 104.1pc jump.

As a result, the state-run supplier announced a dividend of Rs10 per share.

PSO’s gross margins also improved to 6.5pc during FY22 from 4.5pc in the preceding year.

AKD Securities said in a note that the earnings were lower than expected because of higher other expenses which stood at Rs9.1bn compared to expectations of Rs2bn.

“Another major difference occurred due to exorbitant tax of Rs32.9bn (effective 61pc) for the quarter against our expectation of Rs27bn.

“Significant inventory gains arose on the back of increasing oil prices where differences between ex-refinery prices of MS/HSD increased by 90/100pc during the quarter on sequential basis. We expect inventory gains to have clocked in at Rs45bn versus our expectations of Rs51bn during the period,” AKD Securities added.