The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) on Wednesday notified an increase in the prices of petroleum products up to Rs 8.67 per liter while up to Rs 1.77 per kg in price of CNG with immediate effect. Ogra notified increase in CNG price by Rs 1.77 per kg in Zone-I consisting of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), Potohar, and Balochistan, while by Re 0.90 per kg in Zone-II consists of parts of Punjab and entire Sindh.
After the current increase in CNG prices, the commodity would be sold at Rs 77.12 per kg against Rs 75.35 in Zone-I and in Zone-II at Rs 71.05 per kg against Rs 70.15 per kg. "Upward adjustment in CNG consumer price has been necessitated owing to 20 percent increase in Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC) as advised by the federal government. These prices will be in vogue till such time any further notification is issued," the notification added. The authority on the recommendation of the Finance Ministry notified an increase of Rs 2.75 per litre in petrol price, Rs 3.08 Light Speed diesel, Rs 4.38 per litre in Kerosene oil and Rs 8.67 per litre in High Octane (HOBC) price.
Currently HOBC is selling at Rs 118.2 per litre, petrol at Rs 94.91 per litre, Light Speed diesel at Rs 90.21 per litre, High Speed Diesel Oil at Rs 103.46 per litre and kerosene at Rs 92.02 per litre. After the increase in the petroleum prices, different POL products would be sold at following prices: Petrol at Rs 97.66 per litre, Kerosene Oil at Rs 96.40 per litre HOBC at Rs 126.87 per litre and Light Speed diesel at Rs 93.31 per litre.
Earlier, after a crucial meeting of special parliamentary committee of National Assembly, constituted by Fehmida Mirza Speaker NA, to review and formalise the mechanism for determination of POL prices, committee members seemed helpless before finance and planning managers to bring down increase for March.
The special parliamentary committee headed by Syed Naveed Qamar Federal Minister for Water and Power, however decided not to increase the price of High Speed Diesel (HSD) up to June 30. However, after commitment of the Finance Division to provide subsidy of Rs 7.5 billion to stabilise the price of High Speed Diesel (HSD) for March, Ogra notified the same price of HSD for February ie Rs 103.46 per litre.
Earlier a crucial closed-door meeting of special four-member parliamentary panel was held here at parliament house with Syed Naveed Qamar Federal Minister for Water and Power in chair to review the Ogra decision particularly regarding the continuous extra-large hike in price of POL products since last month.
Talking to reporters at the end of the meeting, Syed Naveed Qamar said that Finance Division has agreed to provide subsidy of Rs 7.5 billion on HSD for next three months till end of June 30, which was not passed on to the consumers of HSD fuel. "The price of HSD will remain stable for the month of March, as assurance given by finance managers to provide subsidy of Rs 7.5 billion for next three months on HSD price, it was decided not to pass on the proposed increase of Rs 2.80 per liter in the price of HSD to end consumer," he added.
The minister didn't clarify increase or decline in the prices of other POL products except HSD, however he was of the view that federal government would consult provinces to contribute their shares to the subsidy over other petroleum products including petrol, LDO, kerosene and others for next three months.
The minister added that a proposal was laid before the panel to increase the Petroleum Development Levy (PDL) on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), however, the panel with mutual consideration rejected this and said proposal to provide relief on CNG was outside their purview.
Qamar maintained that soon the committee would consult political and financial leadership of all four provinces to contribute their shares to provision of subsidy over other POL products, adding that "federal government couldn't be able to bear the entire burden of subsidy over POL products for next three month," he added.
Federal government and main opposition party Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz agreed to provide a subsidy of Rs 15 billion on POL prices. Earlier, Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, Advisor to Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue offered to provide a relief of Rs 10 billion on oil prices spread over three months and agreed to enhance the amount to Rs 15 billion.
He was of the view that decision regarding subsidy would not only increase fiscal deficit and circular debt but also indirectly fuel inflation in the shape of printing of more currency note, adding that the relief would keep on increasing at the rate of Rs 15 billion in each quarter resulting in cumulative impact of over Rs 60 billion till general elections next year. The meeting was attended by Farooq Sattar of MQM, Prime Minister's Special Assistant on Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, Rana Tanveer of PML-N and Riaz Hussain Pirzada of PML-Q.