KARACHI: Amid the rising inflation and high prices, consumption of different petroleum products saw a 40 per cent decline in May on a year-on-year basis to 1.3 million tonnes, shows the latest data.
It is a continuation of the trend being experienced during the current fiscal year which, in turn, has also reduced budget deficit due to reduced imports.
Overall economic slowdown, and reduced production of electricity by furnace oil-based power plants and smuggled petroleum products from Iran are also among the factors behind this trend.
However, one has to see how the latest government decision to slash the prices twice during the last month would impact the sales in medium-term.
When it comes to the first 11 months of 2022-23, there has been an over 25 per cent reduction in sales to the level of 15.26 million tonnes, according to the figures released by the Oil Companies Advisory Council, when compared with the same July-May period of the previous fiscal year – 2021-22.
During the last month, the largest decrease was witnessed in the sale of furnace oil, which shrunk by 80 per cent to 0.09m tonnes.
Similarly, diesel consumption had reduced by 36 per cent to 0.54 million tonnes while the figures for petrol plummeted by 24 per cent from a year ago to 0.6m tonnes.
However, the sale of petroleum products increased by 11 per cent on month-on-month basic in May when compared with April as more diesel was sold during the harvesting season as well as a revival of demand for petrol and diesel owing to a recent drop in prices.
Meanwhile, more and more people are using the public transport – mass transit systems in Lahore, Karachi, Rawalpindi and Multan – to avoid higher taxi/rickshaw fares with many of the bike riders too contributing to the trend.
