Refineries to absorb Rs15bn a month to hold petrol Rs15 cheaper
Petroleum Minister Ali Pervaiz Malik and Information Minister Attaullah Tarar announce the arrangement in Islamabad; Arab News PK puts the monthly refinery burden at $54 million.
The government said on Monday that oil refineries will absorb about Rs15 billion a month so that petrol can be sold Rs15 below the price it fetches in the international market.
Petroleum Minister Ali Pervaiz Malik and Information Minister Attaullah Tarar announced the arrangement at a press conference in Islamabad. Dawn reported that the measure is meant to shield consumers from global price increases during the US-Israeli war on Iran.
Arab News PK reported that the refineries had agreed to absorb $54 million a month to avert a Rs15 rise in the petrol price. Dawn gave the monthly burden as approximately Rs15 billion; Arab News PK gave it in dollars. Both reports centred on the same Rs15 gap between the domestic and international price, though they described it differently: Dawn as a discount to the global rate, Arab News PK as an increase that was called off.
Dawn placed the announcement against a backdrop of global price increases during the US-Israeli war on Iran. Its standfirst did not give the size of those increases, and Arab News PK's report did not state the cause either.
Neither report named the refineries that agreed, set out how the burden would be divided among them, or explained how the government arrived at the figure.
The ministers' full remarks were not carried in either report. Neither gave a breakdown of the price calculation or the date from which the arrangement takes effect.
The reports also did not say whether diesel, kerosene and jet fuel fall under the arrangement or only petrol, whether the refineries accepted the burden voluntarily or at the government's insistence, or how long it is meant to run.
Dawn's headline said the government had enlisted the refineries for the purpose; Arab News PK's said the refineries had agreed to absorb the amount.
Neither report said what the current retail price of petrol is, or what it would have been without the arrangement.
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