"Petrol price to drop further when....," Ali Pervaiz Malik clarifies

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Energy (Petroleum Division) Ali Pervez Malik, explaining the reason behind not reducing petrol prices, stated that further relief will be passed on to the masses once prices in the international market stabilize, ARY News reported.

The government has been facing criticism from the public for not slashing petroleum product prices despite a major reduction in crude oil prices in the international market.

In response to public concerns, Minister Ali Pervez Malik issued a clarification on X (formerly Twitter), explaining the actual factors behind price determination and the government’s point of view.

Over the last week, Brent crude fell by $9.69, WTI by $8.53, and Arab Light by $4.14. Regarding this, the minister explained that refineries use crude oil, whereas consumers use refined petrol and diesel, the prices of which are compared on a weekly basis.

In the current month, the price of petrol was $98.35 per barrel on June 22, which dropped to $91.68 on June 26. Meanwhile, diesel was available at $109 per barrel on June 22 and decreased to $104.79 on June 26.

The Minister emphasized that the government is neither prioritizing any specific sector nor burdening the masses with extra loads. Ali Pervez Malik clarified that all price readings from the previous week have been released on social media, and relief has already been provided to the public based on those metrics.

He said that the government used billion of rupees in the targetted subsidy for the massses to remove their sufferings from the profit earned from the the deals given to refinaries and today levy has been kept low on the petroleum products.