Petrol down Rs 1.70 from Wednesday: a 40-litre tank now costs Rs 15,682

The Petroleum Division cut petrol by Rs 1.70 a litre and high speed diesel by Rs 3.12 a litre from Wednesday, 23 September. Petrol is now Rs 392.05 and HSD Rs 418.96. OGRA revised the ex-depot prices under the federal pricing mechanism, and the Petroleum Division put the change down to movements in international Platts rates, premiums and incidental costs.

What a full tank costs now

At Rs 392.05 a litre, before the freight charge your pump adds:

• Suzuki Alto, 27-litre tank: Rs 10,585, down Rs 46
• Honda City or Toyota Yaris, 40-litre tank: Rs 15,682, down Rs 68
• Toyota Corolla, 55-litre tank: Rs 21,563, down Rs 94
• Honda CD 70, 8.5-litre tank: Rs 3,332, down Rs 14

Diesel at Rs 418.96 fills a 50-litre pickup tank for Rs 20,948, Rs 156 less than yesterday. A 200-litre truck fill drops Rs 624, to Rs 83,792.

Work out your own car on the fuel cost calculator, and check what your tank actually returns per litre on the fuel average calculator.

What it saves you in a month

The cut is small. A car doing 1,000 km a month at 12 km per litre burns about 83 litres, so the monthly petrol bill falls from roughly Rs 32,813 to Rs 32,671, a saving of about Rs 142. A rider doing 1,000 km on a 70cc at 45 km per litre saves about Rs 38 a month.

Diesel is the number that matters to everyone else. Goods transport, inter-city buses, tractors and generator sets run on HSD, and a Rs 3.12 cut is the second largest single component of a haulier's running cost after wages. Transport rates usually follow a diesel move within a week to ten days, in either direction, which is why the sabzi mandi and the atta rate feel a diesel cut later than motorists do.

Where this sits in the run of prices

Petrol has spent September in the 390s. The last reading before this one was Rs 393.75 and diesel Rs 422.08. The full run is on our petrol price page and diesel price page, updated every time OGRA notifies a change.

Two things to keep in mind at the pump. First, the notified price is ex-depot: your station adds inland freight, so the board in Gilgit or Chitral will read higher than the board in Karachi. Second, Octane 97 and Hi-Octane are deregulated and are not part of this notification, so those boards move on the oil marketing company's own schedule.

What to do this week

If you were holding off on a fill, there is no point waiting for more: Rs 1.70 on a 40-litre tank is Rs 68. If you run a diesel vehicle commercially, take the new rate into your per-kilometre costing now rather than at month end, because that is where the Rs 3.12 actually shows up.