ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan government said on Wednesday it would maintain the current prices of petrol and high-speed diesel (HSD) for the next fortnight, a day after it announced a sharp increase in the price of natural gas for most households and industry.
According to a notification from the Ministry of Finance, the prices of petrol and HSD would remain Rs283.38 and Rs303.18 per liter respectively.
For the last fortnight starting Oct 16, Pakistan had cut the prices of petrol and diesel owing to the decreasing trend of petroleum prices in the international market. The price of petrol had dropped by 40 Pakistani rupees to 283.38 rupees a liter and high-speed diesel cost by 15 rupees to 303.18 rupees a liter.
On Tuesday, ahead of the cash-strapped country’s first review of a $3 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout, a fixed tariff for 57 percent of household gas consumers was raised to 400 rupees a month, from 10 rupees, the energy minister of a caretaker government, Muhammad Ali, told reporters in Islamabad.
Low- and middle-income households would be charged lower prices and high-income households would be charged more, he said, and new tariffs had also been introduced for industry.
Ali said the tariff increase would generate nearly 400 billion rupees and the state-run gas sector would from now on face no losses.
Energy sector debt has been the main issue that the IMF has highlighted in tackling fiscal deficit and it has been recommending measures to deal with it.
An IMF team is scheduled to arrive this week to review benchmarks set for the $3 billion stand-by arrangement agreed in July.
Pakistan is being governed by a caretaker administration in the run-up to a general election expected in January.
