Petroleum minister says premium for PSO tenders has seen an increase of around $10-20
Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar and Federal Minister for Petroleum Ali Pervaiz Malik address a press conference in Islamabad on Monday. Photo: screengrab
The government on Monday said that oil refineries had agreed to share a Rs15 billion financial burden, because of which a Rs15 per litre increase in petroleum prices had been deferred to alleviate the burden on consumers amid ongoing geopolitical tensions.
In a press conference in Islamabad, Petroleum Minister Ali Pervaiz Malik, speaking alongside Information Minister Attaullah Tarar, noted that the international market, reacting to the tensions in the region, was witnessing an upward trend, adding that the spot market and Platts rates had been demonstrating fluctuations, but petrol prices were also governed by other factors.
Malik said: “A Rs15-per-litre increase in petroleum prices had been due to take effect from Friday, but oil refineries cooperated with the government to defer the impact on consumers by sharing a financial burden of Rs15 billion.”
Read: Petrol pricing revised to shield consumers
The petroleum minister underscored that the government did not intend to cause “hardship” to any stakeholder and wanted to navigate the international crisis through a “transparent process”.
He added: “Logistics have a cost. A very large crude carrier that was once available for a few hundreds of thousands of dollars is now rarely available for even a million dollars.”
Malik further noted that insurance costs had risen manifold, and there are even more issues related to logistics.
“In this purview, a couple of PSO tenders were issued that underscored an extreme excess under premium, which records several factors,” he added.
Speaking about Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s approach to providing relief to consumers, Malik said the government was providing relief to the people according to its means.
Apart from the fuel relief scheme that was offering “targeted relief” to 13 million people, the government had undertaken several other measures to alleviate the burden on the masses, the petroleum minister stated.
Talking about the PSO tenders, Malik stated that the “premium” saw an increase of around $10-20.
The minister underlined that the government tried to improve its procurement operations by optimising costs, but the difficult situation in the region was affecting this measure, further adding that this was reflected in the petroleum pricing mechanism outlined before October 31, which included a premium of $20.
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