ISLAMABAD – After refusal by the political parties to support any move to increase the petroleum prices, the government on Monday decided to maintain them at the level of December 2010. Addressing a press conference here late Monday night, Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) Executive Director Syed Javed Nasim said no change had been made in the petroleum prices despite the fact that they had surged in the international market.
A source told Pakistan Today that the government would have to bear a loss of Rs 12 billion during the month of February by not increasing the petroleum prices. “If the government had decided to increase the petroleum prices, the increase would have been at least up to Rs 10 per litre keeping in view the international prices,” the source added.
Earlier, a meeting of the parliamentary committee on petroleum products pricing mechanism ended in a dead lock on Monday as the opposition parties refused to agree to the government’s proposal to allow any increase. During the meeting, Petroleum Minister Syed Naveed Qamar told the committee that the government was not in a position to continue bearing the increase in petroleum prices in the international market.
However, the committee members strongly resisted the move and said they would not allow any increase in petroleum prices. Khwaja Sohail Mansoor of MQM proposed that the government should immediately bring some legislation to impose agriculture income tax as the agriculturists were provided with Rs 200 billion support price for important crops.
He said the revenue leakages in Federal Board of Revenue should be plugged.
