Pakistan Peoples' Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) on Thursday condemned the oil companies advisory committee's (OCAC) decision to keep prices of petroleum products unchanged, denying desperately-sought relief to hard-pressed consumers.
"For over a month, prices fluctuated between US dollar 57-58 per barrel unlike earlier rates of dollar 70 per barrel, but it is second time in a month that OCAC has kept prices unchanged," pointed out PPPP spokesman Senator Farhatullah Babar.
He told Business Recorder that it was a condemnable act that the masses had been denied relief and prices of POL products were not revised downward.
"OCAC's irrational approach on this extremely sensitive issue reinforces our demand that the pricing fixing task be given to the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra)," he contended.
The prices of petrol are Rs 56.29 per litre, HOBC Rs 62.77, Kerosene Rs 32.87, light diesel Rs 30.97 and high speed diesel Rs 37.18. OCAC in its Wednesday meeting kept prices unchanged, which has the representation from the oil marketing companies and refineries.
At the inception of Ogra, it was supposed to fix prices of gas as well as petroleum products. However, so far, this task has not been given to this authority.
The Chairman of the Senate's Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Resources Syed Dilawar Abbas maintained that there was no justification in not transferring the task of POL prices' fixation to Ogra for which it was created. He said that it was a highly sensitive issue, concerning all segments of the society, therefore, the sooner Ogra was assigned the job the better it would be.
Referring to the house committee's recommendations, he said it was strongly proposed to the government that instead of OCAC, Ogra should fix POL prices.
The senator revealed that he had summoned a meeting of the committee on December 22 to take stock of the POL price-related matters. Either the Federal Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources Amanullah Jadoon or State Minister Mir Naseer Mengal would attend the meeting, besides senior officials from the ministry and other related agencies. "We are going to propose to the government POL prices should be reviewed every week by Ogra and that interests of the consumers must in any case be protected," he said.
He questioned the logic behind delaying in transferring the powers to Ogra, saying when for transparency, bodies like Nepra, Ogra and Pemra were smoothly functioning, why POL prices' task was being handled in isolation?
The senator believed that Ogra had now the expertise to handle POL pricing issue and it should have one or two public representatives and officials from the ministry of petroleum when it comes to dealing with prices.