LAHORE: The traders and industrialists on Thursday condemned the government for increasing prices of petroleum products up to Rs5.19 per litre, terming it bad news for the country’s economy, as this is third consecutive hike in fuel rates leading to increasing cost of production ultimately.
APBF President Ibrahim Qureshi said though the prices of oil in global market is going up yet the authorities can keep the rates stable by reducing tax ratio which is highest in the region. He said that the government increased the price of petrol by Rs2.49 per litre. High speed diesel price was enhanced by Rs5.19 per litre, light diesel oil by Rs3 per litre and kerosene oil price increased by Rs5.19 per litre for November.
The APBF president said that petrol price will go up to Rs75.99 per litre from the current Rs73.50 per litre. HSD price has gone to Rs84.59 from current Rs79.40 per litre. The prices of kerosene oil, after an increase of Rs5.19, will go up to Rs53.19 per litre from the existing Rs48.00 per litre.
Qureshi said that in the past, the government did not pass on the full benefit of declining oil prices to the public by imposing heavy taxes. It is the time to relax the duties and absorb the burden of soaring petroleum prices in international market by keeping the prices stable.
LCCI former vice president Kashif Anwar, terming it a bad news for the country’s economy which was already facing a number of challenges, said that the increase would put extra burden on the consumers. He said that at a time when the country’s trade deficit was further stretched by 34 percent during 2MFY18 to $6.3 billion owing to rise in imports and slow exports growth amidst high cost of doing business, the continuous hike petroleum as well as power tariff is very unfortunate.
