Petrol, diesel prices likely to go further up.

ISLAMABAD -- The government is likely to increase for next 16 days the prices of key petroleum products - petrol and high-speed diesel - by about Rs5 per litre on Friday, a senior official told Dawn on Thursday.

He said a working paper from the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) had been received at the Ministry of Finance which worked out about Rs9-9.50 per litre increase in the price of petrol and HSD for Jan 16-31 period.

He said the impact of increase in oil price in international market over the last 15 days was about Rs3.50 per litre on petrol and about Rs2.10 per litre on HSD. On the other hand, petroleum levy on petrol and HSD at present is Rs22.85 per litre and Rs24.38 per litre.

The Ogra's working on oil pricing is based on revised formula under ex-depot prices set on a fortnightly basis in line with prices published in Platt's Oilgram instead of monthly calculations on the basis of import cost of Pakistan State Oil (PSO) at present.

These sources said the revised working is based on increased petroleum levy of Rs30 per litre for both HSD and petrol instead of existing rate of Rs24.38 per litre and Rs22.85 per litre, respectively.

The sources said the...