After govt assurances
\nPetrol pump owners withdraw shutdown call after govt assures margin review and a two-week fuel pricing trial
\nislamabad
\nThe All Pakistan Petrol Pump Owners Association on Wednesday postponed its planned nationwide shutdown for two weeks following successful negotiations with Petroleum Minister Ali Pervaiz Malik, who assured dealers that their long-pending concerns would be addressed.
\nAmid volatility in global oil prices following renewed hostilities in the Middle East, the government last week switched to a daily fuel price review mechanism. Under the new system, daily prices are based on a seven-day average of international market rates to align with international standards.
\nA day earlier, the association met the petroleum minister and demanded an increase in its profit margin and the abolition of the daily fuel price revision mechanism. However, the meeting failed to yield any result, prompting the All Pakistan Petrol Pump Owners Association to announce a nationwide shutdown of petrol pumps from Tuesday night.
\nAddressing a joint press conference with the minister, association secretary Nadeem Khan said the decision to withdraw the strike call was made in view of the escalating regional crisis and the potential hardship it could cause the public.
\n\u201cWe reconsidered our decision keeping in view the escalating crisis caused by the war situation and the difficulties faced by the people,\u201d he said.
\nKhan said the minister had assured the association that its long-pending demand for a review of dealers\u2019 profit margins, which had been awaiting action since 2022, would be addressed. He said the assurance had also been formalised through a written agreement.
\n\u201cWe have complete confidence in Ali Pervaiz Sahab and hope that our commission-related issue will be resolved,\u201d he said.
\nReferring to the government\u2019s daily petroleum pricing mechanism, the secretary said the minister had also assured the association that the policy would continue on a trial basis for two weeks, after which its merits and demerits would be reviewed.
\nHe said the government would assess whether the mechanism caused undue difficulties for the public before deciding whether to continue or reconsider it.
\nBased on these assurances, Khan said, the association had decided to postpone its shutdown call to spare the public from inconvenience, expressing hope that its outstanding issues would be resolved after the two-week review period.
\nAddressing the presser, Malik acknowledged the difficulties being faced by both consumers and petrol pump dealers because of rising oil prices.
\nHe thanked petrol pump dealers, their association and oil marketing companies for supporting the government during difficult times.
\nThe minister said the region was once again facing the threat of war, which had created renewed pressure on oil prices.
\n\u201cIn this situation, we have collectively decided to move forward in a transparent and fair manner during this difficult period,\u201d he said.
\nMalik added that, with the assistance of the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra), the government would begin publishing a detailed Urdu-language breakdown of every component contributing to petroleum price increases on the regulator\u2019s website to ensure greater transparency.
\nThe minister said the government would hold detailed meetings with oil marketing companies (OMCs), the Explosives Department and the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) to address the issues faced by petrol pump dealers.
\nHe also assured the association that its long-pending demand for a revision of dealers\u2019 profit margins would be taken up. He said a roadmap would be prepared and a summary sent to the cabinet so that dealers could meet their legitimate operating costs through an appropriate margin.
\n\u201cOn behalf of the ministry and the Ogra chairman, I assure these colleagues that the issue, which has remained unresolved for several years, will be settled within the next two weeks, and we hope to share this good news with them as soon as possible,\u201d he said.
\nMalik said that if the matter remained unresolved after the two-week period, the government would hold another round of consultations with the association and make every effort to resolve the issue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After govt assurances Petrol pump owners withdraw shutdown call after govt assures margin review and a two-week fuel pricing trial islamabad The All Pakistan Petrol Pump Owners Association on Wednesday postponed its planned nationwide shutdown for two weeks following successful negotiations with Petroleum Minister Ali Pervaiz Malik, who assured dealers that their long-pending concerns would …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":100635,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100626"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100649,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100626\/revisions\/100649"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}