ISLAMABAD: The caretaker government has decided to retain the prices of petroleum products at the current level during the month of August 2018.
Ignoring Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority’s (OGRA) recommendation to increase the price due to a hike in the international market, the government still kept the petroleum products rates unchanged, though tax and duty adjustments have been made accordingly.
The decision has been deferred so that the new government could take it according to its own priorities.
For its part, the Ogra had recommended increase in price of high speed diesel by Rs2 per litre, petrol Rs2.50 per litre, kerosene oil Rs5 per litre and light diesel oil Rs6 per litre for the month of August.
The caretaker government though in its monthly ritual did not pass on the increase in international benchmark to the consumers for the month of August.
At the start of the previous month, for July, the caretaker government had, among other petroleum products, jacked up the price of petrol by Rs7.54 to Rs99.50 per litre, diesel by Rs14 to Rs119.3 per litre and kerosene oil by Rs3.36 to Rs87.7 per litre.
But just a week later, it had to backtrack, bringing down the prices as the Supreme Court took suo moto notice of exorbitant taxes on the petroleum products.
On July 7, the federal government revised down the petroleum prices by up to Rs6.37 per litre. The ministry of finance had then notified the reduction in petrol price by Rs4.26 to Rs95.24 per litre, high-speed diesel by Rs6.37 to Rs112.94, kerosene oil by Rs3.74 to Rs83.96 and light diesel oil by Rs5.54 to Rs75.37.
