-After 4th such raise within 35 days, Petrol will now be priced at Rs248.74, Diesel at Rs276.54, Kerosene Oil at Rs230.26, Light Diesel at Rs226.15
-PTI rejects price hike
Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: The federal government, once again, jacked up the price of petroleum products on Thursday for the next fortnight, putting an additional burden of nearly Rs15-18 per litre on the masses.
The Finance Division, in its notification, said that in view of the fluctuations in petroleum prices in the international market and exchange rate variation, the government has decided to partially apply a petroleum levy, and revise the existing prices of petroleum products “as agreed with the development partners.” The new prices come into effect from last midnight.
With the fresh hike, the price of petrol will be Rs248.74/litre, diesel will be Rs276.54/litre, kerosene oil will be sold for Rs230.26/litre, and the price of light diesel oil will be Rs226.15/litre. The coalition govt, since coming to power in April, has raised the price of petrol by Rs84. It had first raised the petrol price by Rs30 on May 26, followed by another increase of Rs30 on June 2. And on June 15, it hiked the price by another by Rs24 Thursday. Addressing a press conference flanked by State Minister for Petroleum Musaddaq Malik, Finance Minister Miftah Ismail said that Pakistan has seen “significant success” on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme and after several deliberations, the two sides are optimistic about the revival of extended fund facility.
“Pakistan has also received the Memorandum of Economic and Financial Policies (MEFP) for the seventh and eighth review under which there are some prior actions,” he said, revealing that the among was to increase the price of petrol through petroleum development levy (PDL) in order to revive the programme.
He reiterated that the Imran Khan-led government had decided to increase the price of petroleum products by Rs4 per litre every month; however, the PTI government broke IMF’s promise and gave subsidies which added pressure to the exchequer.
Later, a notification said in view of the fluctuations in prices in the international market and exchange rate variation, “the government has decided to partially apply the petroleum levy and revise the existing prices of petroleum products as agreed with the development partners.”
As per the notification, Rs10 petroleum levy has been applied on petrol and Rs5 each on high speed diesel, kerosene oil and light diesel.
Pakistan had on Tuesday received the Memorandum of Economic and Fiscal Policies (MEFP) from the IMF for the combined seventh and eighth reviews of its $6 billion loan programme, which has been stalled since April.
The MEFP contains certain prior actions that would be necessary for implementation before the IMF board takes up Pakistan’s case for approval and the subsequent disbursement of funds.
According to the MEFP, Pakistan will have to take at least two more “prior actions” to secure the two combined tranches by the end of July or early August. The prior actions include the passage of the federal budget as agreed to with the IMF and presented in the National Assembly on June 24 and present a memorandum of understanding duly signed by the provincial governments to jointly provide about Rs750bn cash surplus to the centre.
In all probability, two tranches of about $918 million each (or $687m Special Drawing Rights, or SDRs) would be made available to Pakistan at once in the last week of July of the first week of August.
