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Friday March 29, 2024

Petrol and diesel prices slashed by Rs5 per litre

By Israr Khan
December 16, 2021
Petrol and diesel prices slashed by Rs5 per litre

ISLAMABAD: The government on Wednesday slashed the prices of petrol and diesel by Rs5 per litre each. Similarly, it has also cut the kerosene and light diesel oil price by Rs7 a litre each for the second-half of December 2021. While the petroleum levy has remained unchanged it has, however, increased the sales tax on both the petrol and diesel by 4.77pc per litre and diesel 9.08pc respectively.

The decision comes at a time when internationally the oil prices have dropped by $11.52 per barrel to $73 per barrel. Also the OGRA had recommended up to 11 rupees a litre cut in petroleum prices.

According to the decision, ex-depot price of petrol has been reduced from earlier Rs145.82 to Rs140.82 per litre; high-speed diesel from Rs142.62 to Rs137.62 per litre, kerosene from Rs116.53 to Rs109.53 per litre, and LDO price reduced from Rs114.07 to Rs107.06 per litre. The consumers in remote areas use kerosene for cooking, where gas is not available. The LDO is being consumed by flour mills and a couple of power plants.

According to the commitment with the IMF, the government increased the PDL on the petroleum products. On petrol, it will collect PDL of Rs13.62 per litre and on diesel Rs13.14 per litre. On kerosene oil, it has been decided to charge Rs5.91 per litre and Rs3.66 per litre on LDO. It is to be noted that last month, the government had reduced the PDL to Rs5 per litre.

Additionally, it also collecting the Sales Tax on these products. For the next fortnight, the government has notified the GST on petrol at 4.77 percent per litre, diesel 9.08 percent, kerosene 8.3 percent and LDO with 2.7 percent. These taxes are directly taken from consumers. The OGRA had recommended up to 11 rupees a litre cut in petroleum prices.

It may be noted that in the international market, the oil prices (Global Benchmark Brent) have tumbled from $84.52 per barrel recorded on 9 November to around $73 per barrel on Wednesday, showing a decline of around 11.52 dollar per barrel in the last five weeks.

It may be noted that on 30 November, Prime Minister Imran Khan had turned down the Oil and Regulatory Authority’s proposal to increase the petroleum products’ prices and announced to keep the prices unchanged for the first half of December. On 15 November too, the prices were not changed. But interestingly, earlier, on November 4, the government announced a massive increase in POL prices; the prices of petrol went up by Rs8.14 per litre, diesel Rs8.14 per litre, kerosene Rs6.27 per litre, and light diesel oil by Rs5.72 per litre.