With the people already reeling from prolonged power outages and an increase in the electricity tariff, the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) recommended a price increase of six percent across the board on petroleum oil products on Friday from May 1. Oil prices are averaging $122 per barrel in the current month.
An official source said that complete passing on of the impact of rising international oil prices would help save the government Rs 12 billion next month. The final approval on the recommendation would be given by the prime minister after consulting the finance minister on Saturday (today). OGRA has recommended an increase of Rs 5 per litre for petrol, Rs 5.85 for HOBC, Rs 5.05 for kerosene and Rs 5.57 per litre for diesel.
The notified petrol price from April 1 was Rs 83.56 per litre, HOBC Rs 98.12 per litre, high speed diesel (HSD) 92.89 per litre, and kerosene oil Rs 84.10 per litre. The government had set a budgetary estimate of collecting Rs 110 billion under petroleum levy (PL) but it was later on reduced to Rs 90 billion for the current fiscal year. The import volumes of crude oil, HSD and furnace oil were 7 million tonnes, 4.6 million tonnes and 6.6 million tonnes respectively during the year 2009-10, for which the import bill was around $10 billion.
The estimated import volumes of crude oil, HSD and furnace oil are 8.4 million tons, 4.0 million tons and 9 million tons respectively for the year 2010-11 for which the import bill is estimated around $ 12 billion.Meanwhile, Federal Minister for Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh said on Friday that the federal budget for 2011-12 will be presented on May 28, APP reported.
Fuel prices set to increase by 6 percent
