Pakistan Peoples Party on Wednesday has taken exception to the statement of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz regarding petroleum prices. Prime Minister had stated that petroleum prices would not be lowered because the government was already facing a deficit of rupees 60 billion on that account.
According to a press release of the PPP the Prime Minister while talking to newsmen on Monday also said government did not allow increase in fuel prices when oil prices were increasing the world over.
The statement, Party spokesman Senator Farhatullah Babar issued on Wednesday, said the government had been increasing oil prices even as they were decreasing in the international market. There was serious disconnect in government's pronouncements on that issue. While the Prime Minister said oil prices would not be lowered his Petroleum Minister was assuring the Parliament that oil prices would soon be decreased, he said. Babar further said oil prices were rising not because of international price rise but due to manipulations by the oil marketing companies.
The PPP had already demanded a probe into the oil price scam. The demand was also made for withdrawal of price fixation from the cartel of oil marketing companies under the name of Oil Companies Advisory Committee (OCAC) and handing it over to the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) the statutory body created for this purpose, PPP spokesman said.
He said serious bungling in the oil prices had come to surface in replies given to Senate questions that could no longer be covered up. He said reluctance on the part of regime to hold an inquiry raised serious questions about the powerful vested interests behind the scam.
He said that transportation margin allowed to each Oil Company was only two rupees per liter in July 2004 but had been increased to nearly rupees 10 a liter by December 2004.
Such a massive increase in transportation margin is nothing short of a scandal, he concerned adding the OCAC was a cartel of oil marketing companies that made hay while the poor groaned.
Senator Babar said it was intriguing that a statutory body called the 'Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority' (OGRA) existed for fixing oil prices but government still allowed the cartel of oil marketing companies to determine oil prices, he concluded.-PR
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