Pakistan keeps petroleum prices unchanged from October 16, 2022

Pakistan keeps petroleum prices unchanged from October 16, 2022

The government of Pakistan has decided to keep the prices of petroleum products unchanged for the fortnight starting from October 16, 2022.

Finance Minister Muhammad Ishaq Dar in a statement said that Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) had sent summary for increase in prices of petroleum products but the government had decided to maintain the prices at the level of October 01, 2022 and will be applicable till October 31, 2022.

READ MORE: Pakistan sharply reduces petroleum prices from October 01, 2022

Therefore the prices from October 16, 2022 shall be remained at the level of October 01, 2022. Previously, on September 30, 2022 following changes in petroleum prices were announced:

The rate of petrol has been reduced by Rs12.63 per liter to Rs224.80 from Rs237.43.

The price of high speed diesel has been cut by 12.13 per liter to Rs235.30 from Rs247.43.

The rate of Kerosene oil has been slashed by Rs10.19 to Rs191.83 from Rs202.02.

The price of light diesel oil has been reduced by Rs10.78 to Rs186.50 from Rs197.28.

READ MORE: Pakistan reviews petroleum prices on Sept 30, 2022 amid crash in global rates

Energy experts were believing that the government would announce a sharp reduction in petroleum prices for next fortnight starting from October 16, 2022 owing to massive gain in value of local currency and lower prices of oil in international markets.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar had also hinted to reduce the oil prices significantly in order to stabilize the economy and ease the burden of high prices.

The Pakistani Rupee (PKR) has recorded massive gain 13 sessions against the dollar.

Furthermore, the benchmark US Brent oil also fell owing to fears of lower demand globally.

The government has reduced the petroleum prices in the wake of massive decline in international oil prices.

READ MORE: New petroleum prices in Pakistan effective from September 21, 2022

The previous government of PTI had kept both the petroleum levy and sales tax at zero in order to provide relief to the masses. The PTI government also provided a huge subsidy on prices of petroleum products in order to lower the rates and provide relief to the masses.

However, former Prime Minister Imran Khan was removed through a vote of no-confidence motion on April 10, 2022. Since then the new coalition government led by PML-N increased the prices of petroleum products sharply on three different occasions.

READ MORE: New petroleum prices in Pakistan from September 01, 2022

The present government in the budget estimated to collect Rs855 billion as petroleum levy during the fiscal year 2022/2023. As this fiscal year is starting from July 01, 2022, it is likely that the government will opt to impose the levy from this date.