KARACHI, Sept 18: Market is abuzz with all sort of speculations on price fixation of the petroleum products as the Oil Companies Advisory Committee (OCAC) neither announced the next fortnight prices nor held any meeting on Wednesday.

People in the oil market were convinced that the present prices of petroleum products, announced on August 31, will continue till October 15 next after October 10 elections.

These speculations gathered weight on Wednesday when the OCAC deferred for the fourth consecutive day the adjustment of oil prices. The OCAC, on Wednesday, again came out with a stereotype statement that “the price announcement would not be made today.”

The General Secretary, OCAC, Feroz J. Cowasjee told Dawn that “no OCAC meeting was held for price adjustment,” but he refused to give any reason.

To a query whether the price announcement for the current fortnight has been deferred by the government, he said in plain words, “I have no idea about it.”

Meanwhile, sources in oil sector said that the instruction to the OCAC not to hold the meeting has come from the Petroleum Ministry. Previously, the OCAC has been holding meetings for the three consecutive days, but could not announce the fortnighly price of oil products.

Market is now swirling with the news that the announcement of petroleum prices is likely to be deferred in the current fortnight as well as for the September 30 also till the general elections are not over. The new prices are expected to be announced on October 15, just after five days of general elections, the sources said.

For the consumers point of view, the delay in price revision has been proved beneficial as the petroleum prices were set to rise by 2 to 6 per cent following global price hike of oil products in the wake of US-Iraq tension.

Oil analysts say that the government is trying to avoid any unpopular decision at this stage as opposition political parties would most likely to exploit the situation. The biggest loser of the delay of price announcement is the government itself in view of the revenue collection.