By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The government reduced the prices of gasoline and diesel for the next two weeks, citing the appreciation of the local currency and lower international oil prices.
The price of motor gasoline was cut by Rs9 to Rs253 rupees a liter, while diesel was lowered by Rs7 rupees to Rs253.5 a liter, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said in a televised briefing on Saturday.
The prices of kerosene and light-diesel oil, used mostly by low-income households and farmers, were unchanged.
The government reviews fuel prices every fortnight and adjusts them according to changes in global oil markets and the exchange rate. The rupee has gained about 4 percent against the dollar since the country revived an IMF bailout deal to address its domestic and external imbalances.
Minister Dar said the government had already passed on some of the benefit of a lower petroleum development levy, a tax imposed on fuel products, to consumers earlier this month and decided not to change it further.
He said the levy was part of an agreement with the IMF, which resumed a $3 billion loan program for Pakistan last week. The IMF deposited the funds in the State Bank of Pakistan’s account on Thursday. The payment is the first tranche of the standby arrangement.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif “wants to pass on maximum relief to the people of Pakistan,” Dar said.
Copyright © 2021 Independent Pakistan | All rights reserved
