ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) government rejected the summaries of the increase in petroleum products prices by the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) and decided to keep the prices unchanged which proved the decisions of former premier Imran Khan correct.
Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif rejected the summary for increasing the POL prices after which there will be no change in the price of petroleum for the next 15 days.
OGRA had recommended an increase in petrol prices by raising the minimum petroleum levy and GST by Rs21.30 per litre while a summary of an increase in diesel price by Rs51.32 per litre was sent.
Sources told News360 that the decision to reject the POL hike summary was rejected without taking Miftah Ismail into confidence.
It may be noted that three days ago, the former finance minister of the PML-N government, Miftah Ismail while addressing a press conference, said that the prices of petroleum products need to be increased at least by Rs40 per litre.
However, the political issues came to the fore and Ishaq Dar, who is currently the de facto finance minister, insisted from London and asked the government to bear the financial burden by maintaining the fuel prices.
Analysts say that the question is not why the prices of petroleum products were not increased. Now these prices were maintained till June 2022, so how did OGRA make a summary move? This may mean that OGRA has been asked to move the summary first and the summary will be rejected when there is political and public pressure. That is, political advantage will be gained.
Leading analyst of international oil markets Samiullah Khan in an exclusive interview with News 360 said that the government will have to bear a daily loss of 2 billion due to a non-increase in prices of petroleum products.