The government remained on course to test the nerves of the masses that it again made a whopping Rs14.85 per litre increase in the petrol price, reported 24NewsHD TV channel Thursday.

The government has imposed a levy of Rs10 per litre on petrol while a levy of Rs5 has been imposed on High Speed Diesel, Light Diesel and Kerosene Oil.  

Similarly, the government increased the price of High Speed Diesel by Rs13.23 per lire.

The rate of Kerosene Oil also increased by Rs18.83 while the price of Light Diesel went up by Rs18.68.

It means one-litre petrol will be now available for now Rs248.74 per litre after seeing an increase of Rs14.85 per litre.

Similarly, the one-litre high sped diesel will now be available for Rs276.54 after an increase of Rs13.23 per litre.

The new price for light speed diesel has become Rs226.15 per lire and the Kerosene Oil has become Rs230.26 per litre.

Earlier, OGRA has recommended a hike in the prices of Petrol and High Speed Diesel (HSD) by Rs4.80 per litre and Rs8.60 per litre, respectively.

OGRA had recommended Rs13 per litre increase in the prices of Light Diesel and Kerosene Oil.

However, the government went ahead with another phenomenal increase at a time when the dollar price is decreasing in the country and the crude oil price at the international level has also nosedived with experts suggesting the government is now able to decrease the petroleum prices now.

However, the government baffled everyone again by making a huge hike in POL prices.

Tough decisions being taken to get over economic crisis 

Addressing a press conference after the price hike notification, Finance Minister Miftah Ismail said Pakistan had received a Memorandum of Economic and Fiscal Policies (MEFP) from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which had some prior actions.

"One of the prior actions required us to revive the programme and raise petroleum development levy, but the PTI reneged on its accord with IMF at the end of February," the minister said.

Ismail said the government had to apply Rs10 PDL on petrol and Rs5 on diesel. He said the country suffered a loss of Rs233 billion during the tenure of the previous government, adding that "Rs30 levy should have been imposed on petrol as per the agreement signed by the PTI with the IMF."

He, however, added the government did not impose any taxes to provide relief to the masses.

Minister of State for Petroleum Musadiq Malik said the government had to take tough decisions to steer the country out of the crisis.

"The next four to five months will be tough but things will start to normalise after it in terms of price hike," Malik told journalists.

Since coming to power in April, the PML-N-led coalition government had first raised the petrol price by Rs30 on May 26, followed by another increase of Rs30 on June 2 and nearly after a fortnight on June 15, it hiked the fuel price by another Rs24.

Pakistan had on Tuesday received the MEFP from the IMF for the combined seventh and eighth reviews of its $6 billion loan programme, which has been stalled since April.