Up to Rs 5.34 per litre hike in POL prices

The government Sunday increased oil prices up to Rs5.34 per liter in line with rise in international markets effective from August 1, 2011. The petroleum ministry had proposed the finance ministry to maintain prices of petrol, high speed diesel (HSD) and kerosene oil but the government decided to increase prices of all petroleum products except HSD.
The government has increased price of petrol by Rs1.09 per liter, kerosene oil Rs1.97 per liter, light diesel oil (LDO) Rs2.13 per liter and high octane blending component (HOBC) Rs5.34 per liter.
However, no increase has been made in HSD which price had witnessed decrease of Rs0.37 per liter. The government adjusted it in petroleum levy and decided to maintain existing price of Rs92.10 per liter.
The new price of petroleum products will be: Petrol Rs84.80 per liter, HOBC Rs107.80 per liter, kerosene oil Rs86.62 per liter and LDO Rs83.52 per liter.
Speaking at a press conference, Ogra spokesman Syed Jawad Naseem said that price of high speed diesel (HBS) had declined by 37 paisa per liter which government had adjusted in petroleum levy.
He said that Ogra was just facilitator in de regulated mechanism of oil prices and petroleum and finance ministries have powers whether to pass on impact of oil prices to consumers or not. "It is federal government decision to increase oil prices and not Ogra...our role is only of a facilitator," he added. He said that due to gas loadshedding of CNG stations, the consumption of petrol had increased to 250,000 tons in July 2011 compared to 187,713 tons in corresponding month of July in 2010.
Due to increase in oil prices, rate of General Sales Tax (GST) on petrol has increased by 1 percent, HOBC 5 per cent, kerosene oil 2.3 per cent and LDO 2.6 per cent.
He said that federal government has already deregulated the prices of petroleum products of MS, HOBC, LDO, JP-1, JP-4 and JP-8 effective from June 1, 2011 and refineries and oil marketing companies (OMCs) are allowed to fix and announce their ex refinery price and ex-depot prices of these products on monthly basis keeping in view import parity price. However, Ogra is still regulating freight component.
Government had made a partial cut in oil prices up to Rs3 per liter in line with reduction in global prices effective from July 1, 2011. But the price of High Octane Blending Component (HOBC) had been increased by Rs2.21 per liter after its deregulation. The government had not reduced price of kerosene oil and rather imposed a Petroleum Levy (PL) of Rs1.59 per liter on it.