By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The Economic Coordination Committee of the cabinet approved an increase in the margins earned by petroleum dealers on Friday, defusing a threatened nationwide strike that would have shut fuel pumps across the country starting Saturday.
The committee, chaired by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, signed off on a Rs1.34-per-liter increase in dealers’ margins on motor spirit and high-speed diesel, according to the Ministry of Finance and government sources. The increase lifts the margin from Rs8.64 per liter to Rs9.98. The revision takes effect immediately.
The ministry’s own release did not specify the size of the increase, saying only that the ECC had “deliberated on the matter regarding revision of dealers’ margins on motor spirit and high-speed diesel” and approved a revision.
The Pakistan Petroleum Dealers’ Association had threatened to shutter pumps nationwide starting 6 a.m. Saturday, demanding an 8% increase in margins and citing what it said was $50 million in compensation owed to dealers after three years without a margin increase. The association called off the strike Friday after the government’s approval, though its leadership signaled the dispute is not fully resolved.
Nauman Ali Butt, vice chairman of the All Pakistan Petrol Pump Owners Association, confirmed the increase and thanked the prime minister and petroleum minister. The PPDA’s chairman, speaking at a press conference in Karachi, said dealers would continue pressing their case and floated a return to less frequent price revisions — every seven or 15 days rather than daily. The government rejected a similar push for monthly pricing on Thursday, saying it would maintain the daily price-setting mechanism it introduced last month, replacing the weekly system that had been in place in recent months.
In a statement, the PPDA said it had postponed Saturday’s strike “based on the government’s assurances,” while warning that the association would continue its protest until all of its demands were accepted.
The episode traces back to a Wednesday meeting in Islamabad, where a dealer delegation met with Petroleum Minister Ali Pervaiz Malik after the PPDA had issued a 72-hour ultimatum over the government’s failure to deliver on prior promises. Malik told the delegation the Rs1.34 increase — pending for two years, according to the minister — had already been forwarded to the ECC and was awaiting cabinet approval. The PPDA had warned that pumps would shut down indefinitely from Saturday morning if the government did not act within 72 hours.
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