The local producers reduced the prices of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) on Thursday by Rs 10 per kg ie Rs 100 per domestic cylinder and Rs 450 per commercial cylinder. The major LPG producers, during the last few weeks, had increased the LPG prices by Rs 20,000 per ton, while the Ministry of Petroleum also played an important role in jacking up of the prices by imposing a Petroleum Development Levy (PDL) on local LPG production.
The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra), which is responsible for fixing the LPG prices, has not issued any notification in this connection. After the current decrease in the prices of LPG, it would now be sold at Rs 180 per kg in hilly areas like Gilgit-Baltistan, Fata, Murree, Muzafarabad, and Balakot. While in plain areas including Lahore, Faisalabad, Sargodha, Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Rahimyar Khan, Multan, Attock, Dera Ismail Khan and Peshawar, it would be available at Rs 160 per kg.
All Pakistan LPG Distributors Association Chairman Mohammed Irfan Khokar said that the producers and marketing companies reduced the LPG prices after refusal of its distributors to purchase the commodity on high prices. He said that the government being the single largest producer of LPG in the country was the direct beneficiary of the recent price increase.
He said that the state owned OGDCL, PPL, Parco and Pakistan Refinery were the major LPG producers in the country, but by linking their prices with the international market they had also raised the prices by Rs 17,000 per ton. He claimed that the LPG marketing companies had earned a profit of Rs 350 billion over the past six years. He further said that his association would hold countrywide protests against the current artificial price hike of LPG.
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