File photo. Amer Hilabi—AFP
The Government of Pakistan on Wednesday once again raised the consumer price of petrol, announcing a Rs. 1.45/liter hike, for the next two weeks, while keeping the price of high-speed diesel unchanged.
According to a notification issued by the Finance Division, the price of petrol has been increased from Rs. 235.98/liter to Rs. 237.43/liter, a difference of Rs. 1.45/liter. The price of high-speed diesel has been retained at Rs. 247.43/liter, while kerosene has been slashed by Rs. 8.3 from Rs. 210.32/liter to Rs. 202.02/liter and light-diesel oil by Rs. 4.26 from Rs. 201.54/liter to Rs. 197.28/liter.
The increase to petrol comes as a surprise, as local observers had claimed a recent decline in global fuel prices should have resulted in at least a minor drop in petrol prices rather than the increase notified by the government. However, Finance Minister Miftah Ismail had last week claimed that the price of petrol could either go up or down by a marginal amount.
There are also concerns over the government’s decision to not only notify the price hike in the middle of the night, but to also do so nearly a week later than required—on Sept. 16.
Local media has reported that the notified prices are in line with recommendations of the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA), which had advised against reducing the prices of petrol and diesel.