The government has decided to maintain the existing prices of petroleum products for the month of February 2020, said Ministry of Finance here on Friday. The government decided that there would be no change in the prices of petroleum products and the prices of January 2020 would be maintained in February 2020.

The federal government has downward adjusted petroleum levy on high speed diesel (HSD). The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) calculated petroleum levy on HSD at Rs 18 per liter. However, the General Sale Tax on HSD has been kept at standard rate of 17 percent.

A day earlier on Thursday, the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) suggested to the government to increase petroleum products' prices up to 1.9 percent for the month of February 2020. Under monthly review, the regulator suggested a decrease of Rs 6 paisa per liter or 0.1 per cent for petrol.

However, it has recommended an increase of Rs 2.47/litre (1.9 percent) for high speed diesel (HSD). The price of light diesel oil (LDO) which is an industrial fuel might be increased by Rs 1.10 per liter or 1.3 percent. The price of kerosene oil was recommended to be decreased by 66 paisa /liter (or 0.7 percent).

However, after rejection of the proposed changes in petroleum products, the prices will be maintained as; petrol, Rs 116.60 per liter, HSD, Rs127.26/ liter, LDO, Rs 84.51/ liter, and kerosene oil, Rs 99.45/liter.

The government is charging 17 percent general sales tax (GST) on all petroleum products. Apart from it, the government is also collecting Petroleum Levy (PL) on these products. The OGRA has calculated petroleum levy at different ratio. As per government's directives, the OGRA recommended charging Rs18 per liter petroleum levy on diesel, Rs 15 on petrol, Rs 6 per liter on kerosene oil and Rs 3 per liter on LDO for the month of February.