Pakistan’s petroleum products’ prices still lowest in South Asia: Omar Ayub

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Power and Petroleum Omar Ayub has claimed that prices of petroleum products in Pakistan were still lowest in the South Asian region.

Speaking in the National Assembly today (Saturday), the Power Minister defended the hike in the price of petroleum products, saying that the federal government has increased the fuel prices due to the rising oil prices in the international market.

Omar Ayub said, “The petrol price has increased by 112 percent over the last 46 days in the international oil market,” adding, “the price of OPEC basket has increased by 46 percent last month.” He also pointed out that the price of petroleum products was higher in Bangladesh, India and other countries of the region.

Commenting on the power sector, Omar Ayub claimed that load-shedding has been eliminated and currently it was being carried out only in loss feeders. “The Ministry is focusing on bringing improvement in the distribution and transmission system,” he added.

It is worth mentioning here that the PTI-led federal government on June 26 increased petrol price by Rs25.58 after decreasing for a short span of time. According to a notification, the new price for a litre of petrol is now Rs100.10.

High-Speed Diesel’s new price is now Rs101.46 per litre with an increase of Rs21.31. Light diesel’s new price is Rs55.98 per litre whereas kerosene oil’s new price would now be Rs59.06 per litre.