LAHORE: Motorists across Lahore are paying more at the pump from midnight Tuesday after the federal government notified a fresh increase in petroleum prices, the third upward revision affecting the city inside a single week.
According to a notification issued by the Ministry of Energy (Petroleum Division), the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority revised ex-depot prices under the government’s petroleum pricing mechanism, taking petrol from Rs342.79 to Rs343.87 per litre — an increase of Rs1.08 — while high-speed diesel rose 51 paise from Rs370.41 to Rs370.92. The revised rates took effect at midnight and remain applicable for one day, September 2.
The single-day validity window is the detail Lahore’s transport sector is struggling with most. Under the older fortnightly system, rickshaw drivers, ride-hailing captains and goods transporters could plan fares and margins across a two-week horizon. Under daily revision, that planning window has collapsed to hours.
The latest adjustment follows a series of short-term changes: on Monday, the government raised petrol by 77 paise per litre while cutting HSD by Rs1.03, also for a single day. The direction reversed within forty-eight hours — a whipsaw that leaves fixed-fare operators absorbing the difference themselves.
The Rs370.92 diesel rate is the figure with the longer reach into Lahore household budgets. Diesel moves the trucks bringing produce into the Badami Bagh and Sabzi Mandi wholesale markets, powers the intercity coaches at Thokar Niaz Baig, and runs a large share of the city’s goods transport. Diesel increases historically surface in Lahore retail vegetable and fruit prices with a lag of several days, meaning the pressure from this week’s revisions is still ahead of consumers rather than behind them.
That transport-cost sensitivity is not theoretical this week. Goods transporters nationally have announced a strike over high fuel prices and taxes, a development Lahore’s wholesale supply chain will watch closely.
The pump increase lands alongside a separate monthly revision on cooking fuel. OGRA has notified LPG prices for September 2026 with an increase of Rs4.33 per kilogram, raising the price of an 11.8-kilogram cylinder by Rs51.17 to approximately Rs3,052, up from Rs3,000 last month. For Lahore’s peri-urban belt and the katchi abadis where piped gas coverage remains thin, the cylinder rate is the operative cooking-fuel price.
Under the daily mechanism, the next revision will be calculated overnight and take effect at midnight. Rates are notified federally and apply uniformly at Lahore pumps, with only minor dealer-margin and freight variations.
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