ISLAMABAD, June 30: The government on Saturday announced a reduction in gas prices for domestic consumers ranging between 18 per cent and 52 per cent and cut the number of slabs from five to three in order to provide relief to more people.

The new rates will remain in force from July 1 to Dec 31.

The government also cut oil prices by up to Rs 6.44 per litre for the July 1-15 fortnight.

According to a notification issued by the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra), the tariff for domestic consumers whose consumption does not exceed 100 cubic metres has been reduced by 18.7 per cent from Rs122.95 mmbtu to Rs100 per mmbtu.

Consumers whose consumption ranges between 100 cubic metres and 300 cubic metres will now pay at a rate of Rs 200 per mmbtu — down from Rs245.89 per mmbtu.

The tariff for people consuming between 300 and 500 cubic metres per month has been slashed by 51.7 per cent from Rs 1,035.34 to Rs 500 per mmbtu.

The government has, however, raised the tariff by 10.3 per cent for industrial units using gas for power generation, including captive power plants, Wapda, KESC, generation companies and independent power producers.

The tariff has been raised for the power generation industry, captive power plants and IPPs from Rs507.86 to Rs560 per mmbtu, including Rs100 per mmbtu cess.

The rate of gas infrastructure development cess has been raised to Rs100 per mmbtu for the industry and power sector.

Earlier, captive power plants had been paying Rs13 per mmbtu cess, Wapda, KESC and generation companies like Hesco and Lesco Rs27 and IPPs Rs70 per mmbtu cess.

No change has been made in the gas price for commercial consumers and, most notably, fertiliser plants which use gas a main raw material.

The price of CNG has been reduced by 7.7 per cent for Region-1 (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Potohar) to Rs759.55 from Rs822.53, including Rs141 per mmbtu cess, and by 8.3 per cent for Region-2 (Sindh and Punjab) to Rs697.55 from Rs760.53, including Rs79 per mmbtu cess.

The government has reduced oil prices after a fall in rates in the international market.

The price of HOBC has been slashed by Rs6.44 to Rs106.88 per litre, petrol by Rs5.02 to Rs84.49 per litre, kerosene by Rs2.54 to Rs86.25, HSD by Rs2.48 to Rs97.21 and light diesel oil by Rs2.86 to Rs83.71.

The prices of jet fuels – JP-1, JP-4 and JP-8 – have been cut by Rs2.48, Rs3.46 and Rs2.48 to Rs75.95, Rs66.24 and Rs75.63, respectively.

The levy on petrol stands at Rs10, high speed diesel Rs8, HOBC Rs14 and kerosene Rs6 per litre.

The price of CNG has been reduced by Rs4.59 per kg to Rs70.66 for Region-1 and by Rs4.20 per kg to Rs77.66 for Region-2 following cut in prices of petrol.

The CNG rate is fixed at 60 per cent of petrol price.