Government drops another petrol bomb on masses

In its weekly revision of petroleum prices, the government has dropped another petrol bomb on poverty-stricken masses, by increasing prices of petroleum products up to seven rupees.

Taking effect from September 17 (Today), the Oil & Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) has notified the change of petroleum products prices once again.

Earlier, the ministry of finance gave go-ahead to the proposal forwarded by Oil and Gas OGRA seeking an upward revision in the prices with the exception of diesel.

According to notification, the price of petrol has gone up by Rs6.82 per litre while diesel downs by Rs1.75 a litre.

The price of High Octane Blending Content (HOBC) is also up by Rs1.50 a litre and kerosene oil by Rs0.62.  The price of kerosene oil has also gone dearer by Rs0.62. Its new price would now be Rs104.68 a litre.

In region-I, which includes Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Pothohar, the prices of CNG have been raised of Rs6.26 per kg while in region-II, which includes Sindh and Punjab, CNG by 5.71 rupees per kg.

A jump in international oil market, which rose by $2 per barrel from $113 to $115 lately, has been imputed to this probable hike in local petroleum products prices.

Last week the government didn’t grant its approval to pass on the impact of the high cost of an imported cargo of petrol of Pakistan State Oil (PSO) to the consumers, in a bid to provide relief to the hard-pressed consumers.

The decision resulted in the decrease of Petrol price by Rs4.65 per litre and CNG by Rs4.27 per kg on September 10.

However, through imposition of weekly price mechanism following the decision of Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) of the cabinet, the government has now withdrawn that relief.

Overall, this price increase for three petroleum products will add to the miseries to the inflation-hit masses who are already bearing heavy brunt of sky rocketing prices of essential commodities coupled with unscheduled long hours of loadshedding, besides of the heavy rains that triggered flooding in many parts of the country.

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Posted by Faisal Farooq on Sep 17 2012. Filed under Latest News, National, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.