Both major fuels are up again.
Under the daily pricing review, the Petroleum Division has notified a Rs0.27 increase in petrol, taking it to Rs337.78 a litre, and a Rs1.64 increase in high-speed diesel, taking it to Rs364.70 a litre, effective August 21 (Dawn).
Petrol was Rs337.51 and high-speed diesel Rs363.06 before the revision. Both figures reconcile against the new rates.
Against the week
The diesel increase needs to be read against what happened two days earlier.
High-speed diesel had been cut by Rs32.63 a litre, from Rs395.69 to Rs363.06 — a reduction achieved not by lowering the petroleum levy but by an arrangement with four Karachi refineries to treat the crack spread, for pricing purposes, at roughly $41.50 a barrel against an international level of about $68.
Friday’s revision returns Rs1.64 of that. The cut remains overwhelmingly intact; a little over five per cent of it has been given back in two days.
Petrol received no such reduction at any point this week and has risen on each review.
The tax component
The government continues to collect Rs114 a litre in taxes and duties on petrol and Rs100 a litre on diesel, according to Dawn.
That figure is the reason the Jamaat-e-Islami sit-ins have continued for a sixth day. The party is demanding abolition of the petroleum levy outright, and its emir has dismissed the Rs32.63 diesel cut as inadequate, calling instead for a reduction of Rs130 a litre.
Petrol and high-speed diesel are the two largest revenue sources in the fuel basket, with combined monthly sales of 700,000 to 800,000 tonnes, against about 10,000 tonnes of monthly kerosene demand.
The mechanism
Rates now change every day. The petroleum minister announced the move to daily pricing earlier, with the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority determining rates against international market movements.
For consumers that means the pump price is no longer a fortnightly event to be braced for, but a number that drifts. This week has shown the drift can run to Rs32 in either direction.
