ISLAMABAD: The government on Sunday kept unchanged the prices of two major petroleum products — petrol and high speed diesel — and slightly increased those of kerosene and light diesel oil for the next 16 days i.e. till Aug 31.

According to a notification issued by finance ministry, the ex-depot price of petrol was kept unchanged at Rs119.80 per litre and that of high speed diesel (HSD) at Rs116.53. On the other hand, the price of kerosene was increased by 81 paisa to Rs88.30 from Rs87.49 per litre and that of light diesel oil (LDO) by Rs1.10 to Rs85.77 from Rs84.67 per litre.

Petrol and HSD are two major products that generate most of revenue for the government because of their massive and yet growing consumption in the country. Average petrol sales are touching 750,000 tonnes per month and those of HSD around 800,000 tonnes. Sales of kerosene and LDO are generally less than 11,000 tonnes and 2,000 tonnes per month, respectively.

Under a revised mechanism, oil prices are revised by the government on a fortnightly basis to pass on international prices published in Platt’s Oilgram instead of previous mechanism of monthly calculation on the basis of import cost of Pakistan State Oil.

Published in Dawn, August 16th, 2021