Govt reduces petrol, diesel prices by nearly Rs2 per litre

No change in prices of kerosene oil and light diesel oil, reads official notification

ISLAMABAD:

The federal government has slashed prices of petrol and high speed diesel (HSD) by up to Rs1.79 per litre effective from November 16, the finance ministry announced in a statement issued on Sunday.

The government has cut the prices of petrol and diesel by Rs1.73 and Rs1.79 per litre, respectively. The price of petrol has been reduced from Rs102.40 per litre to 100.67 while HSD has been reduced to Rs101.43 from Rs103.22 per litre.

However, there has been no change in the prices of kerosene oil and light diesel oil. Kerosene oil and light diesel oil will be available at Rs65.29 per litre and Rs62.86per litre, respectively.

The HSD is widely used in agriculture and transport sectors. The reduction in its price would have a positive impact on these two sectors.

Reduction in the price of HSD usually impacts the fares of transport but this time around, there is no chance that the transporters will provide some relief to the masses due to monopolistic practices.

As the sowing season has begun, reduction in price of diesel would be a relief for the agriculture sector.

Petrol is used in motor vehicles. The industry had projected a demand for petrol at 760,818 million metric tonnes in October.

However, its actual sale stood at 609,875 million metric tonnes that witnessed a decline of 19.8 per cent.

The demand of Petrol, which is alternate fuel for gas, has increased in Punjab as the province has no indigenous natural gas production and CNG retails outlets are using imported RLNG.

The winter season has approached, and therefore, consumers will face a shortage of gas. The CNG stations in other provinces may also face the problem of gas shortage which will increase the demand of petrol.