Pak-Arab Refinery Company (Parco) has increased liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) price by 10 per cent, coming closer to the rate announced by the Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDC).
State-owned Parco, the country’s largest refinery, increased LPG price to Rs68,615 per ton compared to Rs62,400 per ton notified a few days ago. The new price took effect from Saturday.
Parco’s new price is slightly lower than the rates of other public sector producers. OGDC and Pak Petroleum (PPL) were selling gas at Rs68,621 per ton compared to Rs73,900 before the Lahore High Court stopped the government from imposing petroleum development levy on LPG.
“Since the government is the country’s largest producer of LPG and accounts for over 60 per cent of the market, the price revision will adversely impact consumers,” said Belal Jabbar, spokesman for the LPG Association of Pakistan.
“Suspension of anti-consumer and anti-competitive clauses of the LPG Policy 2011 by the Lahore High Court had immediately led to a reduction in prices across the value chain, but Parco’s notification lessens the impact of the reduction,” he said.
LPG prices fell by Rs12 per kg following the court’s suspension of petroleum development levy on LPG producers. However, Jabbar said the latest increase would curtail the price reduction to just Rs5 per kg. According to him, average retail price was around Rs110 per kg.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 9th, 2011.
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