POL prices likely to remain unchanged

The government may leave ex-depot prices of petrol and high-speed diesel unchanged at current levels for the first half of January 2023.

According to a source, keeping in view the existing petroleum levy, general sales tax and inland freight equalisation margin, petrol price should go down by Rs0.46 per litre while diesel should become cheaper by Rs0.92 per litre with effect from January 1, 2023.

Claims of exchange loss by Pakistan State Oil (PSO) are estimated at Rs5.50 per litre on petrol and Rs3.50 on diesel.

PSO imports petroleum products during which it faces rupee-dollar exchange loss. The government allows the recovery of exchange loss in petroleum product prices.

However, at times, PSO is denied the recovery of exchange loss in a bid to keep petroleum prices unchanged and avoid political backlash. It comes despite the fact that the oil marketing giant has to recover over Rs600 billion from its customers.

The rupee-dollar exchange rate has increased by Rs1.11 from Rs224.51 to Rs225.62.

Apart from that, the government has jacked up the petroleum levy on petrol, diesel and high octane blending component (HOBC) to collect more revenue from the oil consumers.

In the upcoming revision, it is expected to increase the price of kerosene oil and light diesel oil by Rs6.73 per litre and Rs4.08 per litre respectively.

If prices are revised upwards, kerosene oil will cost Rs178.56 per litre compared to the existing price of Rs171.83 while light diesel oil will be sold for Rs173.08 per litre as opposed to the current rate of Rs169.

Meanwhile, the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) has issued a notification of reduction in the liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) price by Rs12 per kg for January 2023.

Effective from January 1, the price of domestic LPG cylinder will go down by Rs137 while the commercial cylinder will be cheaper by Rs527.

According to the notification, LPG will be available in the open market at Rs213 per kg, domestic cylinder will cost Rs2,411 and commercial cylinder will be available at Rs9,278 in January.