Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Friday said the government has decided to reduce petrol and diesel prices by Rs1.5 per litre, while the prices of kerosene and light diesel oil will remain the same.

Talking to media persons in the federal capital, he said petrol prices will be decreased from Rs72.80 to Rs71.30 and diesel prices from Rs81.40 to Rs79.90 per litre.

The new prices will be effective from July 1 to July 31, 2017.

The minister said that following the directions given by the prime minister, the recommendations of Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) for an increase in prices of kerosene oil by Rs10.95 and Light Diesel Oil by Rs6.82 were not approved.

The prices of kerosene and light diesel oil were kept unchanged at Rs44 per litre, he told.

He said the government has absorbed a considerable impact of price increases since April 2016 and has suffered considerable loss of revenue.

Ishaq Dar said the government will bear a burden of Rs2.4 billion for not increasing the prices of petroleum products in July.