ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Saturday announced a reduction in the price of petrol by Rs9 per litre and high-speed diesel (HSD) by Rs7.
The new prices will come into effect at midnight tonight, the finance minister said while addressing a press conference in Islamabad.
“The petrol price has been reduced to Rs253 per litre from Rs262 after a reduction of Rs9. Likewise, high-speed diesel price is being reduced by Rs7. It will now be sold at Rs253.50, down from the existing Rs260,” the minister said.
However, the finance minister did not announce any changes in the price of kerosene oil or light-diesel oil.
Ishaq Dar pointed out that one petroleum product had witnessed increase while the price of another went down in the international market during the last 15 days.
He said the appreciation in the value of Pakistani Rupee had compensated for the price increase of these products.
The minister further said no changes had been made to the petroleum development levy (PDL) which was increased on the demand of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
“Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has directed us to pass on as much relief as we can to the people so we are not doing any change in the PDL,” he added.
Earlier, the government kept the prices of petrol unchanged and increased the diesel price by Rs7.5 per liter.
IMF bailout
Pakistan on Thursday received the first tranche of $1.2 billion from the International Monetary Fund under the SBA programme.
Dar said the remaining $1.8 would be released after two reviews, meaning that there would be two instalments.
Recently, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved a $3 billion loan for Pakistan after signing the staff-level agreement last month.
