The Pakistan Petroleum Dealers Association has postponed its nationwide strike after the government assured an increase in dealers profit margins, PPDA Chairman Malik Khuda Baksh announced at a press conference in Karachi.
Baksh said petroleum minister Ali Pervaiz Malik spoke with him by telephone for half an hour and assured him of a Rs1.34 increase in the profit margin, following special approval from Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
He said an Economic Coordination Committee meeting was convened on Thursday after the ministers intervention, and a special committee is being formed to examine oil marketing companies demand to abolish the quota system.
“The government has accepted two of our important points,” Baksh said, adding that the association would seek maximum benefit for the petroleum industry.
On daily pricing of petroleum products, Baksh said the governments proposed solution would be implemented in three stages over roughly two weeks. He said the government had agreed to a minimum period for determining prices daily; while dealers had proposed a one month cycle, the government may settle on seven days.
PPDA Vice Chairman Tariq Hassan said the government had withheld the dealers inflation linked adjustment of Rs1.34 per litre for four years, amounting to $50 million. He said the profit margin would rise from Rs8.84 per litre to Rs10 per litre.
The strike had been set to begin on Saturday after talks broke down on Thursday, when the government declined to change the daily price adjustment system but offered to discuss the Rs1.34 margin increase, subject to federal cabinet approval.
The PPDA delegation had left for Karachi and called an emergency meeting of its executive committee before Fridays announcement resolved the standoff.
