Petrol price up by Rs2.49, diesel by Rs5.19 per litre

ISLAMABAD: The government, while passing on the impact of increased international oil prices to consumers, increased the prices of petroleum products for the month of November 2017 with comparatively bigger margin than previous months.

On Tuesday, petrol was made dearer by Rs2.49 per litre, diesel and kerosene oil by Rs5.19 a litre each and Light Diesel Oil (LDO) price was increased by Rs3 a litre. With the increase in the prices of petrol, diesel, kerosene and LDO, the new price of petrol from November 1 will be Rs75.99 per litre, diesel Rs84.59 per litre, kerosene oil 53.19 and LDO will be Rs49 a litre. These new prices will be effective from November 1 until midnight of November 30, 2017.

It is worth mentioning that in international market, crude oil prices have risen from $52 to 60 in October, owing to which the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) had recommended an increase of Rs5.19 per litre in the price of high speed diesel (HSD) and Rs 2.49 per litre in petrol. The regulator has also suggested an increase of Rs15.99/litre in kerosene and Rs12.63/litre in Light Diesel Oil (LDO) prices. During the past several months, the government had been passing on partial increase in prices of diesel and petrol. It had also not changed the prices of kerosene oil and LDO for several months. However, the government made a partial increase in the price of kerosene oil last month.

Now, the government had given up its policy of making partial increase in oil prices to provide relief to consumers and passed on full increase in prices of petrol and diesel. High Speed Diesel is widely used in transport, power and agriculture sectors. The increase in its price will have direct impact on the consumers using transport and electricity. Following gas crisis, the government had decided to use imported gas-LNG in transport sector.  

Earlier, CNG used to be alternate source of fuel for vehicles. However, now LNG is being used in CNG retail outlets which was not cheaper fuel that had resulted in increase in demand of petrol. Therefore, increase in its price will also have direct impact on the masses using vehicles.