ISLAMABAD: The government on Monday decided to keep the prices of all petroleum products unchanged until Nov 15.

In another important move, it decided to clear letters of credit (LCs) of up to $100,000 value from Tuesday (today).

The announcement to maintain prices of petrol, high-speed diesel (HSD), kerosene oil and light diesel oil (LDO) was made by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on the national television through a recorded message.

In doing so, the government transferred the impact of the increase in HSD’s import price to petrol rate that had gone down by about Rs3 per litre through adjustment in the rate of petroleum development levy (PDL).

As such, the PDL on HSD was reduced by about Rs3 per litre to Rs4 as the government increased PDL on petrol to Rs50 from the existing Rs47.26 per litre. Otherwise, the petrol rate should have come down by about Rs3 and that of HSD should have increased by about Rs3 per litre according to the import costs.

Thus the ex-depot price of petrol and HSD would remain unchanged at Rs224.80 and Rs235.30 per litre, respectively. Likewise, the ex-depot price of kerosene oil and LDO was also kept unchanged at Rs191.83 and Rs186.50 per litre, respectively.

Besides, Mr Dar said the government in consultation with the State Bank would start clearing letters of credit of up to $100,000 value from Tuesday. He said there were only 365 cases in this category.

Published in Dawn, November 1st, 2022