Govt drops petrol bomb on country

ISLAMABAD: The prices of petrol and high speed diesel were increased by Rs35 per litre each in Pakistan on Sunday.

While dropping this petrol bomb, which is bound to see further hike in inflation in the country, Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Senator Ishaq Dar also announced that the per litre prices of kerosene oil and light diesel have been increased by Rs18 each.

The minister also said that the new prices would be applicable almost immediately – 11am on January 29 to be exact.

Making the announcement on state-owned news channel, Dar said rumours were circulating on social media and other media for the past few hours that an increase of Rs80 per litre was expected in the petrol price, which were not true.

The minister said due to these rumours, an artificial shortage of petrol was created in the market. And thus, keeping in mind the anxiety in the market, the announcement of petroleum prices on the instructions of OGRA was necessary.

He said the government had to take these measures due to the devaluation of the rupee and the 11 percent increase in oil prices in the international market.

The minister said that currently there is plenty of petrol in the country and due to these rumours, efforts are being made to create an artificial shortage of petrol.

Dar said this initiative of the government will end the artificial scarcity of petroleum in the country.

The new per litre prices will be: Rs249.80 (petrol), Rs262.80 (high-speed diesel), Rs187 (kerosene oil) and Rs189.83 (light diesel).

He said that the government did not increase the price of oil in the last 4 months despite the fluctuations in the oil prices in the world market.

Ishaq Dar said that in the last 4 months, our government has reduced the prices of petrol and high-speed diesel by Rs 20 rupees and the price of kerosene oil and light-speed diesel by Rs 30 rupees.