Finance Minister Ishaq Dar announced on Monday that the price of petrol was being cut by Rs12 and diesel by Rs30 per litre for the next fortnight.

In a televised address, he said: “Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif sahib and his government try to provide maximum relief to the public on the basis of prices in the international market.

“Hence, after 12pm tonight, for the next 15 days, petrol prices are being reduced by Rs12 and the new price of petrol will now be Rs270,” Dar said.

The minister said diesel will now cost Rs258 after a deduction of Rs30. Kerosene oil will now cost Rs164.07 after an Rs12 decrease and the price of light diesel oil will be reduced by Rs12 to Rs152.68 per litre.

Dar also requested transporters and other departments that use diesel to forward the relief to the public in the form of lower fares, so that every segment of the economy could benefit from the development.

The government had previously kept the price of petrol unchanged on April 30 and had slashed the price of high-speed diesel by Rs5 per litre.

Last month, Pakistan’s overall oil sales plunged 47 per cent year-over-year to 1.171 million tonnes, while the total sales shrank by 24pc to 13.970m tonnes in the July-April period of FY23.

Analysts had attributed the fall in sales to a massive drop in furnace oil and diesel sales.