WASIM IQBAL

ISLAMABAD: In its daily review, the government on Tuesday reduced the petroleum prices for September 30. According to an official notification, the ex-depot petrol price has dropped by Rs1.49 to Rs387.54 per litre from Rs389.03. Meanwhile the price of High Speed Diesel (HSD) fell by Rs2.73 to settle at Rs402.24 per litre from Rs404.97.

The Petroleum Division has announced lower ex-depot prices for petrol and HSD, based on the working of the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) using a seven-working-day rolling average of the daily Platts Arab Gulf Means Price.

During this period, the average petrol price has been reduced to USD 127.92 per barrel (compared to USD 128.76 per bbl on September 29), while HSD decreased to USD 111.76 per barrel from USD 113.31 per bbl.

The levies and profit margins remain largely steady across both products. The change is recorded in import cost of both petroleum products. The import cost of petrol has been decreased to Rs276.78 per litre from Rs278.27 per litre, whereas, cost of HSD price has gone down to Rs317.24 per litre from Rs319.97 per litre.

According to a Petroleum Division notification, government levies and fixed profit margins for petrol and HSD remain unchanged. Both fuels carry a Petroleum Levy of Rs80 per litre, a Climate Support Levy of Rs5 per litre, and profit margins of Rs9.98 per litre for dealers and Rs7.87 per litre for oil marketing companies. The Inland Freight Equalisation Margin (IFEM) has been adjusted at Rs7.91 on petrol and Rs4.19 per litre on HSD.