ISLAMABAD: Pakistan may 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 has also hinted to reduce the oil prices significantly in order to stabilize the economy and ease the burden of high prices.
READ MORE: Pakistan sharply reduces petroleum prices from October 01, 2022
The Pakistani Rupee (PKR) has recorded massive gain during past 12 sessions against the dollar.
A day earlier, the local currency gained PKR 21.74 against the dollar during the last twelve straight sessions. The exchange rate reached to near record low of PKR 239.71 on September 22, 2022 to the dollar but ended at PKR 217.97 on October 10, 2022. Dar recently claimed that the actual value of the dollar is below PKR 200 and he vowed to bring it down.
READ MORE: Pakistan reviews petroleum prices on Sept 30, 2022 amid crash in global rates
Furthermore, the benchmark US Brent oil also fell to $95.62 per barrel on Tuesday owing to fears of lower demand globally.
Previously, the government announced a sharp reduction in oil prices effective from October 01, 2022, which are:
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: New petroleum prices in Pakistan effective from September 21, 2022
The government has reduced the petroleum prices in the wake of massive decline in international oil prices.
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.
