Pakistan likely to elevate petroleum prices up to 10 percent

ISLAMABAD:The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) has proposed a 10 percent hike in prices of diesel and petrol in line with fluctuation of oil prices in the international market.

Based on revised tax rates and import parity price of Pakistan State Oil (PSO), Ogra has worked out about Rs9.44 per litre increase in the price of high-speed diesel (HSD), Rs4.71 in petrol, Rs8.06 in kerosene and Rs5.12 in the price of light diesel oil (LDO).

The regulator has also requested the prices of kerosene oil to be raised by Rs8.06 per litre and light diesel oil (LDO) by Rs5.12 per litre for next month, a letter for March 2019 read.

The OGRA summary was forwarded to the Ministry of Energy (Petroleum Division), which recommended revision in oil prices.

If accepted, the diesel prices would inflate from existing Rs106.68 to Rs116.12 per litre, petrol from current Rs90.38 to 95.09 per litre, LDO from Rs75.03 to Rs80.15 per litre and kerosene from Rs82.31 to Rs90.37 per litre.

The government is set take the final decision on Ogra’s recommendation yesterday on Thursday.

Over the last two months, the government has started increase petroleum levy rates because it remains in the federal kitty unlike GST that goes to the divisible pool taxes and thus about 57pc share is grabbed by the provinces.

Last month, the government had increased general sales tax rate on all petroleum products to 17pc across the board to generate an additional revenue of about Rs11bn per month. Until Dec 31, 2018, the government was charging 0.5pc GST on LDO, 2pc on kerosene, 8pc on petrol and 13pc on HSD.