When there is despair everywhere due to skyrocketing inflation and speculations of default, the nation got a relieving news as the government announced to reduce the oil prices. In view of the declining price trend of petroleum products in the international market, the federal government on Thursday decided to reduce the prices of petroleum products by up to Rs10 per litre. According to the new rates the price of petrol stood at Rs214.80, High Speed Diesel (HSD) at Rs227.80, Kerosene at Rs171.83, and Light Diesel Oil price stood at Rs169, respectively. The decline comes amid a drop in international oil prices. As of December 15, Brent crude futures were down 33 cents or 0.4% at $82.37 a barrel by 1453 GMT and US crude futures lost 43 cents or 0.6% to $76.85.
Oil prices play the most important role in deciding the prices of goods in a country. Whole economy of the state revolves around the prices of oil. Government’s decision of decreasing the oil prices at the moment when there are ample talks about possible default of the economy of Pakistan. Although, the government did not decrease the oil prices according to the margin which it has in its hands due to the rates of oil in international market. But, still something is better than nothing so the cut in the prices of oil is a moment of relief for the nations.
Pakistan is one of the top importers of oil. Throughout the history, Pakistan has been facing the pressures of international prices of oil. There were a number of factors behind Pakistan’s financial problems regarding import of oil. But, one factor which has been contributing much in this regard is that the country has been purchasing more expensive oil from the countries when it was having a cheaper option in hand. This cheaper option was kept on neglecting just for the country’s affiliations with the other countries of the world. The politics between two big blocks of the world has been hurdle for Pakistan to come out of the trap of expensive oil. However, the former Prime Minister Imran Khan has the credit of working to break this trap. He decided to import oil from Russia on cheaper rates. But, his decision was considered as a threat by the other block. Resultantly, Imran Khan was ousted from the office through a conspiracy. The political parties sitting on opposition benches at that time were against the decision of Imran Khan to import oil from Russia. They were of the view that if Pakistan would import oil from Russia then the relations of the country with the United States would be deteriorated.
After coming in power, same political parties tried hard to survive without importing the Russian oil but, they failed. Resultantly, they had to decide that Russian oil should be imported. Now, the talks have been finalized with Russia for providing cheaper oil to Pakistan. The decision would be proven more beneficial if it would have been taken earlier. But, still it is a good move. POL prices would come down further through import of Russian oil.
Published in Daily Country News, December 17th, 2022.