Petrol prices slightly reduced

The federal government has maintained the prices of high speed diesel (HSD) while slightly reduced the prices of other petroleum products for the month of February. Partially accepting the recommendations of Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) on petroleum prices, the government reduced the prices of petrol by Rs 0.59 per litre but maintained the HSD at current price for the month of February.
A statement of Finance Division said that the price of petrol is reduced by Rs 0.59 per litre, kerosene oil by Rs 0.73 per litre and piece of light diesel oil (LDO) has been slashed by Rs 0.25 per litre.
The price of high speed diesel will maintain at Rs 106.68 per liter and new price of petrol will be Rs 90.38 per litre. Light diesel oil price will come down to Rs 75.03 per litre from Rs 75.28 per litre and kerosene oil price will dip to Rs 82.25 from Rs 82.98 per litre.
The OGRA had recommended a decrease of Rs 4.00 per litre in the price of HSD and Rs 0.59 per litre in petrol. Earlier, the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority recommended the federal government to reduce prices of petroleum products for February 2019. In a summary sent to the Ministry of Finance for final decision, the OGRA recommended to reduce the price of petrol by Rs 0.50 per litre, HSD by Rs 4.00 per litre and kerosene oil by Rs 2 per litre. However, the regulator asked the government to increase the price of LDO by Re 1 per litre.
The federal government had raised petroleum levy (PL) on petrol by 42 percent and high speed diesel by 126 percent from January 1, 2019. The OGRA had proposed a reduction in price of POL based on a 17 percent across the board levy of sales tax. This was accepted by the federal government; however it then raised PL to partially meet the shortfall in the revenue collections during the first six months of the current financial year.
According to FBR, sales tax on motor spirit, high speed diesel oil; kerosene and light diesel oil remained unchanged at 17 percent from February 1, 2019. There is no change in the sales tax rates on POL products during February 2019. The standard rate of 17 percent sales tax would continue in Feb 2019.