Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Saturday announced a reduction of Rs9 per litre in the price of petrol and Rs7 per litre in that of high-speed diesel (HSD) for the next fortnight.

The new price of petrol is Rs253 per litre and Rs253.5 per litre for HSD.

The finance minister did not announce any changes in the price of kerosene oil or light diesel oil.

Dar said that there was a reduction in the price of one fuel product and an increase in the others in the international markets in the last 15 days, without specifying which products he was referring to.

He said the appreciation in the value of the rupee had compensated for the price increase of these products.

Dar added that since the government had already passed on a portion of the petroleum development levy (PDL) to the masses in the fuel prices announced on July 1, it had decided not to make any increase with respect to the levy this time.

“Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif wants us to grant as much relief as we can [to the people] so we are not doing any change in the PDL.”

On July 1, the government hiked the HSD rpice by Rs7.5 per litre to Rs260.5 and kept the petrol price unchanged at Rs262 per litre.

He had said the decision to increase the HSD price was made considering the rising prices of petroleum products in the international market at the time.

At the same time, the finance min­ister had said that the Oil and Gas Reg­ulatory Authority had made efforts to minimise the burden of price increases on the masses.