Diesel price rises by Rs2.29 to Rs402.96 per litre, petrol unchanged at Rs377.91
The federal government has raised the price of high-speed diesel by Rs2.29 per litre to Rs402.96, while keeping petrol unchanged at Rs377.91, under revised rates in force from 31 October to 2 November.
The federal government has raised the price of high-speed diesel (HSD) by Rs2.29 per litre, taking it to Rs402.96 per litre, while keeping the price of petrol unchanged at Rs377.91 per litre. The revised rates took effect on Saturday, 31 October, and will remain in force until Monday, 2 November, according to a notification issued by the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA).
The revision was announced on Friday by the Petroleum Division, and reported the same evening by Dawn, The Express Tribune and The Nation. It is the second consecutive day on which diesel has become more expensive: on Thursday, 29 October, the government had already raised HSD by 85 paisa per litre, from Rs399.82 to Rs400.67, pushing diesel above the Rs400 mark for the first time in this cycle.
Petrol, by contrast, has now been held steady for three days running. The previous revision on 29 October had lifted petrol by Rs1.85 to its current level of Rs377.91 per litre, and Friday's notification left it exactly there. Kerosene oil stands at Rs330.96 per litre and light diesel oil at Rs275.24 per litre for the same period.
The government continues to levy heavy taxes and duties on fuel. According to Dawn's report of the notification, Rs114 per litre is charged on petrol and Rs100 per litre on diesel, a substantial share of what motorists pay at the pump. Those levies have stayed in place even as international prices have swung sharply in recent weeks.
Petroleum Minister Ali Pervaiz Malik, announcing the revision at a news conference on Friday, linked the increase to volatility in global oil markets driven by renewed hostilities in West Asia. He said the daily prices are now fixed on the basis of a seven-day average of international market rates, in line with practice in other countries, and that OGRA has begun publishing its daily petroleum price calculations on its website to improve transparency.
Pakistan moved to a daily fuel pricing framework in July, replacing a weekly mechanism that had been in place since early March. Under the new system, OGRA can publish ex-depot prices each day without waiting for prior federal approval, and prices announced on a Friday simply hold over the weekend, which is why the 30 October notification covers 31 October through 2 November.
The timing is uncomfortable for consumers. Diesel is the fuel that powers trucks, buses, tractors and much of the country's goods transport, so a rise in its price tends to feed through into the cost of food and other essentials within days. WIO News, reporting the increase, warned that essential goods are likely to cost more as transporters pass on the higher fuel bill.
The broader context is a Middle East conflict that has repeatedly disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway carrying a large share of the world's seaborne oil. Tanker attacks and strikes on energy infrastructure in the Gulf have kept crude prices volatile, and Pakistan, which imports most of its petroleum, feels those swings almost immediately at the pump.
For context, diesel and petrol remain well below their peaks of early April, when HSD reached Rs520.35 per litre and petrol Rs458.41, after rising from Rs281 and Rs266 respectively in the first week of March following the outbreak of the US-Iran war in late February. The current rates, while lower than those peaks, still leave diesel at a level that strains household budgets and farm economics.
What happens next depends on two things: the course of international prices over the coming days, and the government's next daily notification. Under the daily mechanism, a fresh OGRA calculation is due before the current rates expire on 2 November, and any further rise in global crude would be expected to flow through quickly. For now, motorists filling up this weekend will pay Rs377.91 for petrol and Rs402.96 for diesel.
