ISLAMABAD, Sept 18: In what appears to be the last attempt to force the government to reduce prices of oil products, members of a National Assembly committee from both the treasury and opposition benches threatened on Tuesday to submit a privilege motion in the house against the secretaries for finance and petroleum if they failed to bring the prices down to the July 31 level.

“This is our third unanimous recommendation to the secretaries for revision of the prices to the level of July 31,” the chairman of National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Re-sources, Tariq Khattak, said at the conclusion of its meeting.

At the outset of the meeting, some members lashed out at the petroleum ministry for what they termed its indifferent attitude and asked it to brief the committee on Sept 27 about implementation of the recommendations.

The committee said the price of petrol should be reduced to Rs85.90 per litre from the existing Rs106.72 — or by 19.5 per cent — and that of high octane blending component (HOBC) to Rs112.52 from Rs137.96 (18.4 per cent).

The members recommended a reduction of 14.5 per cent in the price of high speed diesel to Rs97.21 per litre from Rs113.77, 13.84 per cent in that of light diesel oil to Rs85.53 from Rs99.27 and 15.59 per cent in the price of kerosene to Rs88.19 from Rs104.48.

They urged the government to notify the prices as they were on July 31, in the interest of the consumers.

The committee has rejected the government’s decision to review the prices every week and called for revision on a monthly basis.

A firebrand People’s Party MNA from Muzaffargarh, Jamshed Dasti, criticised the petroleum ministry. “The ministry doesn’t take the standing committee seriously. This is against the supremacy of parliament,” he said.

He said the committee’s meetings were held at a heavy cost but its recommendations were not worth the paper they were written on.

Mr Dasti alleged that the ministry was involved in creating artificial shortage of petroleum products, leading to a windfall. “I have evidence of the petroleum ministry being involved in these practices.”

MNA Haider Shah of the PPP proposed that the petroleum levy and 16 per cent general sales tax on petroleum products be abolished to keep the prices at an affordable level. The government charges petroleum levy of Rs10 per litre on petrol, Rs14 on HOBC, Rs6 on kerosene and Rs8 on HSD.

Petroleum Secretary Dr Waqar Masood informed the committee that Parco, a joint venture, was not willing to brief it on the operation of its plant. He said only the board of directors of Parco could run the affairs of the refinery.

The committee had sought a briefing about the refinery. However, the refinery sent a letter to the ministry, expressing its unwillingness to brief the committee.

Mr Dasti described the letter as a violation of the Constitution. He said the refinery management did not listen to anyone and had created a monopoly.