Opposition up in arms as govt tries to justify record hike in petrol prices.

Petroleum Minister Omar Ayub Khan on Saturday defended the government's decision to increase the price of all petroleum products in the country, saying that it had tried to provide relief to the people amid rising international prices.

Addressing a press conference with Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Petroleum Division Nadeem Babar, he said that prices in the international market had risen by 112 per cent over the last 40 days.

In a sudden move on Friday evening, the government had increased the prices of all petroleum products by up to nearly Rs26 to share the impact of rising international prices with the consumers.

The price of petrol (motor spirit) was raised by a whopping Rs25.58 to Rs100.10 per litre from the existing Rs74.52, an increase of 25.6 per cent.

During the press conference, Babar explained that the government set the prices of petroleum products on the basis of Pakistan State Oil's (PSO) monthly average. Like other government functionaries, he highlighted that Pakistan had the lowest prices among South and Southeast Asian countries.

"The price of petrol is Rs180 in India, Rs108 in Indonesia, Rs153 in the Philippines, Rs159 in Thailand and Rs196 in Japan," he said, adding that the government had continued passing on the effects of falling prices to the public.

Giving an "example", he said that on February 28, before the pandemic started, petrol was priced at Rs116.60 and diesel cost Rs127.26. On June 1, the price of petrol was reduced by Rs42 and that of diesel by Rs47. He added that the government, despite its "lesser purchasing power", was trying to charge as less as it could.

Explaining why the government had announced the new fuel prices on June 26 instead of July 1, he said that according to calculations, if the "last cargo was priced at the current rate, there would be an increase of Rs31-32" in petrol prices.

"We didn't want to do this," he said, adding that by increasing prices earlier, the government had reduced the total increase by spreading it over 35 days. "This means all the oil marketing companies (OMCs) will also face a minor loss in July [but there will be] net benefit for consumers."

Referring to the oil crisis, Babar claimed that the reason behind it was "hoarding by certain OMCs".

"Nearly all OMCs did not have stock of 21 days as per licencing agreements; PSO had an 18-day stock too. Not only did we repeatedly ask the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) to issue notices to these companies...