Brutal petroleum price rise

Nothing surprises people in Pakistan anymore. Brutal petroleum price rise therefore, came as nothing new that despite announcing publicly that he has rejected the extraordinary price increase suggested by OGRA, the PM did exactly the same by hiking the petroleum prices taking them to the highest-ever prices of all the products and also perhaps the highest-ever increase in their prices in one go. Very conveniently, the blame for this unprecedented price rise was laid on the doorstep of the IMF by mentioning that it was the application of additional petroleum levy as committed to the international lender. It must be kept in view that petrol and HSD are two major products that generate most of the revenue for the government because of their massive and yet growing consumption in the country. Average petrol sales are touching 750,000 tonnes per month against the monthly consumption of around 800,000 tonnes of HSD. The Brutal petroleum price rise sales of kerosene and LDO are generally less than 11,000 and 2,000 tonnes per month, respectively. Interestingly, the government had last increased the petrol prices by Rs.3 on 5 January taking it to Rs.147.83 but the latest increase will take the price levels almost at par with the US dollar. TW

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