POL prices: minimum burden passed on to consumers, says Waqar

Secretary Petroleum, Ahmad Waqar said on Monday the government continues to take the revenue hit by passing on minimum impact to domestic consumers, despite the record increase in prices of petroleum products in the international market.
"The government has already taken a revenue hit of around Rs 66 billion during the last two years due to capping of petroleum prices from May 2004 to December and again from October 2005 till April 30, 2006, he said. "Now the government will again share a burden of Rs 2 billion in order to soften the impact of recent increase in petroleum prices on the masses", Ahmad Waqar told PTV.
During the last two years, the secretary said, the prices of petrol, diesel and kerosene oil in the international market have registered 81%, 122% and 113% increase, respectively.
However, he said, the government took the major hit of these increases and made only 56%, 60% and 47% increase in domestic prices of petrol, diesel and kerosene oil, respectively to save masses from financial hardship.
He said, it was government''s strategy to pass on minimum impact of increase in petroleum prices in the international market to the domestic consumers and take the maximum hit on itself.
Ahmad Waqar said, international multilateral agencies have hailed the government of Pakistan for its policies on the effective management of October 8 earthquake as well as the mechanism of petroleum prices.
The secretary revealed that the government has made only 50% increase in prices of petroleum products as against what had been proposed by Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra).
He said, Ogra had proposed the increase of Rs 2.82, Rs 3.08 and Rs 4.7 in prices of petrol, diesel and kerosene, respectively, but the government increased the prices of these commodities only by Rs 1.41, Rs 1.55 and Rs 2.36, respectively.
Secretary Petroleum said, the prices of petroleum products in Pakistan are still low in the region particularly when compared with India. "We still have 12% and 20% lower prices of petrol and diesel, respectively when compared with India."
Giving a comparison he said, the price of petrol in Pakistan is Rs 57.70 per litre as against India where its average price is Rs 65 per litre, with the diesel price in Pakistan at Rs 38.73 per litre and in India it is Rs 46.78 per litre.