ISLAMABAD - The Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) by the approval of the government have further jacked up the prices of all petroleum products up to Rs 3.39 per litre except petrol while Ogra has issued a notification of decrease in the price of CNG upto Rs 4.27 per kilogram, to be effective from Monday (today).
In accordance with the notification issued by Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) on Sunday regarding the per kilogram price of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) for next one week, it was decided that CNG price after a decrease by Rs 4.27 would stand at Rs 91.45 per kg for Region-I comprising of Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Potohar regions while after a cut worth Rs 3.89 in per kilogram price for Region-II comprising of Sindh and Punjab regions, the new CNG price for Region-II would stand at Rs 83.55 per kg.
Decrease in the price of petrol is by Rs 4.65 per litre announced by OMCs which were later approved by the Ministries of Finance and Petroleum on Sunday.
Similarly, Ogra in its notification with an increase of Rs 1.85 per litre has determined the per litre price of Kerosene oil by Rs 104.06 per litre for next one week.
Following the August 7th decision of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet, Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) of the country are now setting the prices of petroleum products.
In accordance with the announcement of OMCs done after getting the approval of both Finance and Petroleum Ministries pertaining to determination of the prices of petroleum products for next week that per litre price of High-Speed Diesel (HSD) would stand at Rs 115.52 per litre after an increase of Rs 3.39 per litre, while price of High Octane Blended Component (HOBC) after a raise by Rs 3.27 per litre would be available in the open market at Rs 136.46 per litre to the consumers.
Similarly, Rs 0.57/litre increase has been given to the price of Light Diesel Oil (LDO), which would stand at Rs 99.41 per litre during next one week in the country.
It is worth mentioning here that the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) in a statement on Saturday warned the government of serious consequences if it makes any further increase in the prices of petroleum products.
LCCI President Irfan Qaiser Sheikh said that a series of protests, in consultation with all the trade and industrial associations, would be launched against increase in petroleum products prices and the federal government would be responsible for any untoward situation.
The LCCI President while urging the government to revisit its petroleum prices fixation formula and make it acceptable to business community said that the business community was unable to understand that under what law the government is making repeated upward increases in the petroleum prices when it always makes POL products purchases for three months.
He said it is not the electricity alone that has destroyed economic activity but the government itself is responsible for economic meltdown by taking steps like petrol hike.
“If repeated increase in the fuel prices would be made, the entire economy would suffer and the same happened in Pakistan in the last many months as the repeated hikes in the POL prices had ruined the industrial and economic activities,” LCCI President Irfan Qaiser Sheikh said.
A legislative panel of National Assembly Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Resources, working as a watch dog on the affairs of Petroleum and Natural Resources had rejected the decision of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet to determine petroleum prices on weekly basis on August 8th and recommended the Ogra and the Petroleum Ministry to revive old monthly pricing mechanism.
The panel Tariq Khattak in chair said the new mechanism would increase the shortage in the market and observed that the ‘oil mafia’ in the country was facilitated with the ECC decision.


Petrol price down; diesel, kerosene’s up