Petrol has risen to Rs393.75 a litre, its highest of this run, while diesel fell (PSO).
| Fuel | New | Change | Previous | |—|—|—|—| | Petrol | Rs393.75 | +Rs4.61 | Rs389.14 | | High-speed diesel | Rs422.08 | -Rs1.96 | Rs424.04 |
The revision follows three days without one.
Sixteen days
| | 7 September | 22 September | Change | |—|—|—|—| | Petrol | Rs345.87 | Rs393.75 | +Rs47.88 (+13.8pc) | | High-speed diesel | Rs378.05 | Rs422.08 | +Rs44.03 (+11.6pc) |
Petrol is Rs6.25 short of Rs400.
The two products have now separated
This is the second time in five days they have moved in opposite directions, and the divergence has widened:
| | Petrol | Diesel | |—|—|—| | 18 September | -Rs0.43 | +Rs3.47 | | 19 September | -Rs1.65 | -Rs0.88 | | 22 September | +Rs4.61 | -Rs1.96 |
They are priced off different international products — gasoline and gasoil — which do not move together, and they carry different tax loads. A divergence is not evidence of anything irregular.
It does mean that any single sentence about “fuel prices” in Pakistan is now wrong about one of the two, and that the household effect and the freight effect are diverging.
Which matters more
Diesel, for prices in shops. It moves freight, buses and tractors, and it has now fallen twice from its peak of Rs424.92.
Petrol is the political number, and it is at a new high on the morning the prime minister telephoned Jamaat-i-Islami’s chief to ask him to postpone a march about the petroleum levy.
What has not changed
The levy: Rs80 a litre, within Rs106 of taxes and duties on petrol — now about 27 percent of the pump price.
Oil
Brent rose slightly ahead of possible US-Iran talks, after three sessions of declines that took it to about $104 from a $107.82 high.
What is not established
OGRA has published no statement or calculation basis, and no explanation has been given for the opposite movement of the two products.
[Image: The Express Tribune]
