LAHORE, Dec 20: Justice Mohammad Akhtar Shabbir of the Lahore High Court on Tuesday sought a detailed report from the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority on the revision of POL prices and the reason for raising the same.

Proceeding in the writ petition moved by advocate M D Tahir, the court also directed Deputy Attorney-General Dr Danishwar Malik to submit within two weeks the government policy and formula on getting the prices determined by the Oil Companies Advisory Committee fortnightly.

The direction was issued when the lawyer-petitioner had deposed that the government had upward revised the prices for 109 times in the last six years. He submitted the prices were raised 20 times in 2004-05 alone.

Mr Tahir submitted that the last raise was notified on Oct 1 when the price of oil had come down from US$70 to US$57.25 a barrel, which was unjustified. He stated the actual price of imported oil was calculated at Rs24.71 a litre, but it was selling at Rs56.38 a litre because the federal government was charging a huge amount as duty and other surcharges.

He submitted the court should issue a directive to the government asking it to sell oil to the people at the import price.

Through the writ petition, Mr Tahir has challenged the occasional rise in oil prices, which, he stated is not compatible with global rates. He stated that the oil prices fell in the international market but the government had not passed on the relief to the public. He stated the rise was unwarranted and added to the miseries of the people.

Petroleum and natural resources ministry has since submitted in its report that the government has made adjustments in the POL prices for 92 times since the OCAC inception about five years ago.

According to the report, the committee raised the prices for 42 times, lowered them for 23 times and kept them unchanged for 27 times.

The report submitted that the OCAC was competent to take a review of oil prices every two weeks under a government authorization and a formula. The formula linked oil prices to the international market, particularly the Gulf rates. It submitted that the formula had been fixed by the ministry after it was approved by the Economic Coordination Committee.