Petroleum Division signals shift to 15-day fuel price revision

The Petroleum Division has told petrol pump owners that the country's fuel price revision will move from a daily to a 15-day cycle, Express News reported, after a meeting in Islamabad between the Special Secretary Petroleum and a delegation of the All Pakistan Petrol Pump Owners Association.

According to the Express News report, the meeting discussed in detail the business difficulties pump operators face because petroleum product prices are changed every day. Officials said that, keeping in view conditions in the country and the problems raised by pump owners, steps would be taken to shift the existing daily system to a 15-day basis at the earliest.

The Express News account was not internally consistent on this point. Its opening sentence said officials had assured the delegation of "restoring" the daily revision arrangement, while the headline and the paragraphs that followed described a move to a 15-day cycle. The report did not say whether pump owners' demand had been formally accepted.

The association's delegation included chairman Humayun Khan, vice chairmen Numan Ali Butt and Inamul Haq, Potohar division president Abdul Aziz, Sindh general secretary Raza Abbas, Islamabad and Rawalpindi president Sardar Farooq, general secretary Syed Sibtain Shah, senior vice president Asif Mahmood, information secretary Ahmad Jamal and finance secretary Hafiz Qureshi. The presence of office-bearers from Sindh, Potohar and the twin cities indicates the complaint over daily revisions is countrywide rather than local.

In a statement issued after the meeting, the association said it would continue to press for the protection of pump owners' legitimate rights, for business stability and for improvement in the petroleum sector.

Under the arrangement described in the report, prices are currently revised every day, a practice pump operators say makes it hard to plan stock and margins. Express News gave no date for the change and reported no formal notification, so the timing and the mechanics of a fortnightly cycle remain unconfirmed. The report also did not say what relief, if any, pump owners had been offered on their margins.

Federal fuel prices are announced by the government, and any change in the frequency of revision would apply across the country, affecting both dealers and motorists.