Fuel stations run dry after price increase

A large number of fuel stations remained closed nationwide till noon on Tuesday despite no strike or shortage of petroleum products in the country.

Oil marketing companies (OMCs) and petroleum dealers have allegedly created an artificial fuel crisis as the coalition government increased petrol prices by Rs6.72 per litre with effect from Monday midnight.

Recent practices suggest they usually stop supplies of petrol and diesel to end-consumers for a couple of hours to make additional profit. However, this time around the suspension lasted for almost an entire day. Many petrol pumps had gone dry by Monday evening and new supplies came on Tuesday afternoon.

Finance Minister Miftah Ismail said on August 5 that the country had enough petrol reserves to meet 20 to 25 days of demand while diesel stocks would last 30 days.

Earlier, the OMCs demanded that the government increase their profit margins to Rs8.85 per litre on petrol and diesel with effect from August 1, 2022.

OMCs made the demand after the government increased petroleum dealers’ margins to Rs7 per litre for both petrol and diesel from August 1, 2022.

The dealers’ previous margins stood at Rs4.90 per litre on petrol and Rs4.13 per litre on diesel.

OMCs maintained that their profit margins and that of their dealers were revised collectively in the past, however, this time they had not.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 17^th, 2022.

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