ISLAMABAD: In the fortnightly prices’ review of petroleum products, the price of kerosene oil (SKO) has been reduced by 5.2 per cent and light diesel oil (LDO) by 3.8 per cent, while the prices of petrol and high-speed diesel (HSD) will be unchanged.

In an announcement, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said on Wednesday that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif decided to reduce the price of SKO by Rs10 per litre and LDO by Rs7.50 per litre with effect from December 1 till 15 as SKO was utilised by the poor in winter and LDO was largely utilised in tube-wells.

He said the prices of two petroleum products- petrol and HSD- would remain the same for the first half of December as of second half of November.

Sources said that the government maintain the prices of two major petroleum products (petrol-HSD) by adjusting the rate of petroleum products.

POL products’ prices increased

However, no notification was issued on new PL rates till late Wednesday night. According to the announcement of Dar, the price of SKO has been reduced from Rs191.83 per litre to Rs181.93 per litre. After reduction of Rs7 per litre in price of LDO, the new price is now Rs179 per litre.

In second half of November 2022, the government kept the PL rate on petrol at Rs50 per litre, on HSD Rs12.59 per litre, SKO Rs8.19 per litre and PL rate on LDO was Rs6.24 per litre

The budgeted revenue from petroleum levy in the current fiscal year is Rs750 billion for 2022-23; however, in the first quarter of the current year, the government collected only Rs47.476 billion under this head or six per cent of the budgeted collection. The finance minister also announced to extend the filing of tax returns for the next 15 days after receiving requests from the business community and flood-affected areas. The finance minister requested those who have not filed their tax returns to file their returns in the next 15 days.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022