The federal government publicizes a major decrease in fuel prices on the directives issued by the Prime Minister Imran Khan. The prices of petroleum products were reduced up to Rs7 per liter for the month of March.
This action would give more relief to the masses facing high inflation rate from the last few months. The Ministry of Finance announced the reduction in prices of petroleum products for ongoing month. The government reduced the prices of each petrol and High Speed Diesel by Rs5 per liter. Similarly, prices of Kerosene oil and Light Diesel oil have also reduced by Rs7 per liter each.
The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority had proposed a decrease of Rs7.23 per liter in the price of high speed diesel (HSD) and Rs5.79 per liter cut in price of petrol for March. However, the government reduced the prices of petrol by Rs5 per liter and HSD by Rs5 per liter.
Now the price of Petrol has gone down from Rs116.6 per liter to Rs111.6 per liter, and HSD price reduced to Rs122. 26 per liter from the Rs127.26 per liter.
Meanwhile, price of kerosene oil gone down to Rs92. 45 per litre from Rs99. 45 per litre and light diesel oil price decreased to Rs77.51 per litre from previous Rs84.51 per litre for the month of March.
The Ogra calculated price on the basis of Petroleum Levy of Rs18 per litre on the HSD, Rs15 per litre on petrol, Rs6 on kerosene oil, and Rs3 on LDO. The government passed on the impact of declining oil prices to the people. The benchmark International Brent price had recently reduced from $60 a barrel to $51 a barrel, down 18.33 percent.
The decision would go a long way in bringing down the rate of inflation because fuel is the main source of transportation and agriculture in the country. The government had already increased the general sales tax (GST) on all petroleum products to standard rate of 17pc across the board to generate additional revenues. Over the last many months, the government had increased petroleum tax rates to partially earn a major revenue shortfall faced by the FBR.