Petrol, diesel prices raised again

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan, while rejecting the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority’s (Ogra) summary for petrol price hike by Rs13.18 per litre, approved a minimal increase of just Rs2.70 per litre.

The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) had proposed an increase of Rs13.18 per litre in petrol price, Rs12.12 and Rs11.10 in prices of high speed diesel (HSD) and kerosene oil respectively. The regulator had also recommended price hike of light diesel oil (LDO) by Rs6.62 per litre, effective from today (Monday).

However, considering the public interest, the prime minister approved an increase of Rs2.70 per litre in petrol price, Rs2.88 for HSD, and Rs3.54 and Rs3 per litre in the prices of kerosene oil and LDO respectively.

In case of Ogra summary’s approval, new petrol price would have been Rs122.38 per litre, HSD at Rs125.31 and kerosene oil and LDO at Rs87.75 and Rs82.85 per litre respectively.

However, following the minimal increase on the prime minister’s directive, the new petrol price would be Rs111.9 per litre, HSD at Rs116.07, kerosene Rs80.19 and LDO Rs79.23 per litre.

The government has increased the price of petrol by Rs11.21 per litre during the past two months. This is the fifth time that the petroleum products witnessed hike in prices in the past nine weeks.

The PPP rejected the rise in the prices of petroleum products and demanded reversal of the hike. “The recent rise in the prices of the petroleum is not acceptable as it will further burden the poor who were already hit by price hike, rise in gas and electricity tariffs,” the PPP Secretary General Nayyer Hussain Bokhari said.

Nayyer Bokhari said the government after every fortnight raised the prices of petroleum which is beyond understanding. “First they increased the tariffs of gas and power, and now they have come out with increasing the prices of the petroleum products,” he said.

He said it seems that the only agenda of the government was to make the life of poor people miserable instead of providing them relief. The PML-N leader and former finance minister Miftah Ismail said that up until a few months ago, TV channels would regularly dig up “handsome leader’s” old tweets showing his disapproval of any increase in petrol prices and equating fuel price increase to the PM being a thief. “But now after PTI’s repeated price rises even channels have given up,” he tweeted.