Attock Oil Refinery has increased the prices of lube base oil by Rs 7 per litre, which the lubricant manufacturers apprehend, would result in a sharp increase in all the lubricating oils. In a statement issued here, All Pakistan Lubricants Manufacturers Association (APLMA) Chairman Mian Zahid Husain condemned what he said “arbitrary” act of the Refinery warning the hike could result in increasing the price of every brand of lubricating oil by Rs 11 per litre.
Zahid said the Attock Refinery, the major shareholder of lube base oil manufacturing National Refinery, has so far increased the price by Rs 37 per litre during the last 12 months and the latest increase was the fourth one. “The lubricating oil manufacturers are constantly being ignored by the lube base oil manufacturer and it is raising prices without any consultation with the stakeholders on vague pretexts,” he alleged and asked for the government’s intervention to get the refinery’s decision reversed. He said no government functionary is taking notice of the arbitrary increases in the lube oil prices to the woes of lubricants manufacturers and the motor vehicles owners who have been forced to buy expensive motor oils.
The APLMA chairman said the refinery was increasing prices frequently on various pretexts. “If this trend continued the lubricant manufacturers would be forced to shut down their business,” he warned. Where, on one hand, the refinery was constantly increasing the prices of lube base oil, the smuggled and spurious oil was flourishing in the market on the other hand, said Zahid.
He further pointed out that the lube oil prices had reached to the highest level in last two years.
