The government on Sunday increased the prices of petroleum products by up to Rs6 per litre for the month of April, according to a notification issued by the Ministry of Finance.

The decision was taken in the wake of a slight increase in the international crude price and currency devaluation.

The prices of petrol and high-speed diesel (HSD) have each been raised by Rs6 per litre, whereas the prices of kerosene oil and light diesel oil (LDO) have each been increased by Rs3 per litre.

With the increase, the per litre price of petrol now stands at Rs98.89 and that of HSD stands at Rs117.43.

The new price per litre of kerosene oil is Rs89.31, while that of LDO is Rs80.54.

According to the finance ministry, the government has passed on to customers only about 50 per cent of burden of the price increase proposed by the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) in its summary.

Based on import parity price of Pakistan State Oil (PSO) for purchase in March, Ogra had worked out about Rs11.17 per litre increase in the price of HSD, Rs11.91 in petrol, Rs6.65 in kerosene oil and Rs6.49 in LDO.

Petroleum prices have generally been on the rise since early 2017 barring few reductions. Over the last couple of weeks, the international benchmark Brent has been inching up and the government has been mopping up tax rates in the run-up to the finalisation of an International Monetary Fund-assisted stabilisation programme.

The government has already announced to gradually increase electricity and gas rates over the next few months.