Petrol in Pakistan fell for the fourth day in a row on Friday, 6 November 2026, taking the pump price to Rs352.59 a litre, down Rs9.41 from Rs362.00. High speed diesel fell Rs5.56 to Rs382.25 a litre from Rs387.81. The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority issued the revised rates in a notification on Thursday, and the new prices apply to 6 November only. Since Monday, petrol has dropped Rs25.32 a litre and diesel Rs20.71. Yet the tax built into every litre has not moved at all.
Four cuts in five days
The week began with petrol at Rs377.91 a litre. Four daily revisions later it stands at Rs352.59, a fall of 6.7 percent in five days. Diesel started the week at Rs402.96 and now sells at Rs382.25, down 5.1 percent. The largest single cut came on Friday, Rs9.41 on petrol, after a Rs7.06 cut a day earlier took the price to Rs362.00. The two cuts in between account for the remaining Rs8.85 of the weekly fall. Daily pricing replaced the weekly review on 17 July. Petroleum Minister Ali Pervaiz Malik has said prices are now fixed every day because international oil markets are moving fast amid hostilities between Iran and the United States.
The tax wall has not moved
Taxes and duties inside the pump price have stayed exactly where they were: Rs114 a litre on petrol and Rs100 a litre on diesel, per Dawn. Because the tax is fixed while the price falls, the tax now takes a bigger slice of every litre. On Monday, Rs114 was 30.2 percent of the Rs377.91 petrol price. On Friday, the same Rs114 is 32.3 percent of Rs352.59. On diesel, the Rs100 levy has risen from 24.8 percent of the Monday price to 26.2 percent of Friday’s price. In plain terms, the entire Rs25.32 weekly cut came out of the non tax part of the price, the refinery and import cost, while the government’s own take did not fall by a single rupee. The USD to PKR exchange rate today still shapes the import cost behind the rest of the price, so a weaker rupee can eat into the next cut.
Who is paying for the cut
If the tax did not fall, something else had to absorb the drop, and the answer sits in a 30 day arrangement announced on Monday. Under it, oil refineries contribute towards the petroleum levy, bearing a cumulative impact of Rs15 billion over the month. That contribution is what lets the pump price fall while the official tax lines stay unchanged. It is a temporary bridge: when the 30 days end, the government must renew it, cut the tax, or let prices rise again. The question nobody in government has answered yet is what replaces the refinery contribution when the 30 days run out.
Two reliefs at once
The falling pump price is now running alongside a second, separate relief channel. In September the prime minister announced a targeted fuel relief scheme worth Rs100 a litre for motorcycles, three wheeler rickshaws and cars up to 800cc. The scheme has already spent Rs28.6 billion, and the government says 94 percent of the relief has reached its intended users, despite the licence crackdown on pumps withholding the relief. For an eligible motorcycle rider, the two reliefs now stack: the pump price is Rs352.59, and the subsidy takes another Rs100 off, leaving an effective price of Rs252.59 a litre. But the subsidy was designed when petrol was far more expensive, and the government has not said whether it will shrink as prices fall. For the drivers who felt the squeeze hardest, rickshaw drivers cutting meals as fuel costs bite is a reminder that a falling pump price helps only if it reaches the small pumps and roadside sellers those drivers actually use.
What to watch next
Three things will decide whether this week’s relief lasts. First, the calendar: rates stay unchanged over Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, so Friday’s price holds all weekend and the next revision comes on Monday. Second, the oil market itself: the minister tied daily pricing to Iran and United States tensions, which means the same mechanism that delivered four cuts in five days can reverse them just as fast if crude jumps. Third, the refinery arrangement, about four days in, needs a decision before early December. If it is not renewed and the tax is not cut, the next upward move in world oil prices will land on the pump in full. For now, drivers have a genuine saving, roughly Rs253 on a 10 litre fill compared with Monday, but the saving rests on a temporary levy deal and an unchanged tax. More business and economy news from Pakistan will track the Monday revision and the refinery decision as they land.
