The government Wednesday made maximum increase of Rs 3.50 in oil products prices in line with the global oil prices. The new prices will be effective from Thursday (April 1). The price of petrol has been increased by Rs 2.57 per liter, HOBC by Rs 1.50 per liter, kerosene by Rs 3.31, light diesel oil by Rs 2.73, HSD by Rs 3.50, JP-1 (local) by Rs 3.29, JP-4 by Rs 3.41 and JP-8 by Rs 3.30 per liter.
According to the new tariff, the petrol will be sold at Rs 73.14 per liter, HOBC Rs 87.56 per liter, kerosene Rs 64.81, light diesel oil Rs 62.20, HSD Rs 73.39, JP-1 (local) Rs 54.54, JP-4 Rs 53.10 and JP-8 Rs 54.26 per liter. Addressing a press conference Syed Jawad Hassan, Senior Executive Director Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) said the decision was taken because of rising oil prices in the international market.
He said in the international market prices have been increased too much but due to better exchange rate, the local oil price has not been increased as compared to the international market. Jawad said this revision in prices was necessitated due to increase in the international market over the month of March.
Due to increase in oil prices the government will collect more revenue on account of General Sales Tax (GST). According to Jawad, GST on petrol has been increased from Rs 9.73 to Rs 10.09, kero from Rs 8.84 to Rs 8.94 and on HSD from Rs 9.64 to Rs 10.12. The formula used by GoP is that price of oil in Arab/Gulf has been taken as base to calculate new oil products prices.