Country’s dwindling economic graphs have gruesome effects on the local industry. The incumbent government’s not well-thought financial policies have shrunk the purchasing power of inflation-stricken middle-class man. Meanwhile, hikes in car and petrol prices resulted in a decline in petrol sales in Pakistan.
A report by Arif Habib Limited posted some shocking figures reporting 28% down in petrol sales. Whereas diesel sales observed a slump of 43%. And the reasons behind this downtrend are dip in demand, high prices including heavy rainfall in Punjab.
Coming to month-on-month (MoM) sales, Petrol sales witnessed just a slight increase of 1%, whilst High Speed Diesel (HSD) price has been decreased by 17%.
Steep decline in petroleum sales in March 23
Petrol sales are down by 28%
Diesel sales are down by 43%
Reasons
Demand dip
due to higher prices
Heavy rainfall in PunjabUptick in smuggling from Iran pic.twitter.com/tEwHxn3yVw
— Ali khizar (@AliKhizar) April 3, 2023
And when nation was expecting a decrease of in petrol prices, the federal government decided to retain the petrol prices for the next fortnight.
Govt Decided To Retain Fuel Prices
The federal government had decided to keep the petrol and diesel prices unchanged for the next fortnight. Earlier, reports suggested the price of petrol may go down by Rs. 5-10/liter while it was expected the diesel can see a reduction of Rs. 15-20/liter.
In its notification, Ministry of Finance stated that the government decided to keep the existing price of petrol and High-Speed Diesel (HSD) unchanged. Meanwhile, the prices of Kerosene Oil and Light Diesel Oil (LDO) have seen a decline of Rs. 10/liter. The new prices will remain implemented till April 15, 2023.
The new prices were effective from April 1, 2023.
Current Prices
The petrol price remained Rs. 272/liter, while diesel stayed at Rs. 293/liter. Meanwhile, after a Rs. 10 reduction, Kerosene Oil now costs Rs. 180.29 compared to old rate of Rs. 190.29. And LDO now costs Rs. 174.68 against Rs. 184.68 as it has also seen a reduction of Rs. 10/liter.
What do you think about the slump in petrol and diesel sales? Drop your thoughts in the comment section.
