Petrol Prices Surge by Rs55 and Diesel by Rs38 Over Past Month and a Half in Pakistan
ISLAMABAD: Domestic prices of petroleum products keep climbing as official report shows that prices of petrol and diesel had soared by Rs55 and Rs38 per litre, respectively, in the last one month and a half.
After revisions made since July 21, the retail price of petrol has risen from Rs315.80 to Rs370.80, while that of high-speed diesel has gone up from Rs360 to Rs398.04 a litre, according to official pricing data.
The escalating petroleum levies are part of the Sharp Four-Day Hike.
Fuel cost inflation has picked up quite a pace in the recent days. Petrol saw an aggressive price hike of Rs24.93 per liter and high speed diesel of Rs20 per liter in the span of just the past four days.
In addition to these retail changes, the government has been gradually raising the rates of the Petroleum levies. In the last 45 days, the levy on high speed diesel has been increased from Rs66 to Rs80 per litre. According to the current retail price structure, the petroleum levy represents about 24 percent of the petrol’s price and almost 25 percent of the price of diesel.
Revenue Collection and Fiscal Targets
Official financial documents reveal that the government obtained Rs1,567 billion only through the petroleum levy during the fiscal year 2025-26, which is Rs99 billion more than the budgetary allotment of Rs1,468 billion.
This year’s federal revenue goal for the petroleum levy has been fixed at Rs1,676 billion. Moreover, last fiscal year the collections of carbon levy surpassed the target by Rs50 billion, while it is expected to collect more than Rs100 billion of carbon levy alone this fiscal year. To put that into perspective, the petroleum levy collected Rs1,220 billion in 2024-25 and had a generation window of Rs300 billion from March to June 2024 of that year.