Journal of Energy Technologies and Policy www.iiste.org ISSN 2224-3232 (Paper) ISSN 2225-0573 (Online) Vol.7, No.2, 2017 1 Assessing the Impact of Demand, Import, Taxes and OPEC on Petrol Prices Sameen Mazhar* Department of Commerce, Jinnah University for Women, S-2 831 Saudabad Malir Karachi Afifa Imran Department of Commerce, Jinnah University for Women, R-9/5, ST-31,11A, North Karachi Aiman Shahzad Department of Commerce, Jinnah University for Women, R349 block 18 F.B.Area Durr-e-shahwar Department of Commerce, Jinnah University for Women Sabahat Haider Department of Commerce, Jinnah University for Women, Maria Apartment BB3105 North Nazimabad Karachi Abstract Importance of petrol in our daily life is visible and it is a strategic fuel for economic lifeline. The price of petrol between Pakistan and other most costly fuel consuming countries is 100% to 175% higher. But if the per capita income is taken into the report the difference goes up. It is estimated that petrol prices in Pakistan is worked out to be costly as 6.64 times in Japan, .75 times in Norway and 5.3 times in UK. Pakistan is placed on 158 th rank on the basis of per capita income, but in terms of petrol prices it is placed on 59 th number for the most expensive petrol from 153 countries. The main emphasis of our research report is to find out what are the subsequent factors for the fluctuation of petrol prices and collecting the data regarding the reason. In this analysis we found out the major causes that how demand; import, taxes and OPEC affect the petrol prices in Pakistan. Secondary data has been collected from a variety of journals and reports and primary data from questionnaire and interviews. The sample size of 52 is applied and for testing the hypothesis the process of linear regression is applied to examine the impact of independent variables on dependent variables. It is recommended that Government should generate appropriate strategy for the equilibrium of oil demand, should drill their own wells to maintain oil import in Pakistan and should take initiatives for the suitable and stabilize tax rate. Keywords: Demand, OPEC, Import, Taxes 1. Introduction Petrol is a light fuel oil which is obtained by distilling petroleum and is operated in inner combustion engines. Investigation of petroleum in this region began about more than century ago. The first well was drilled in 1866 at kindal in Mianwali district of Punjab. Now a days petrol is very essential to fulfill the prerequisite of transportation. As the petroleum consumption is increasing day by day a lot of issues are taking place in Pakistan petroleum sector i.e. short supply of petrol, corruption issues, petrol prices, shortage of refineries etc. Our vital objective is changes in petrol prices and the major dilemmas which cause the change in price. The demand plays a crucial role in increasing the price of a product. In our country when the demand of petrol increases the government also increases the price and a large amount of the price we are paying for petrol is tax collected by the government. OPEC sets up the worth of petroleum products as the supply is short OPEC drive up the rates and Pakistan has just 58 billion barrels coffers which did not achieve the demand of petroleum and due to which it faces tough time in petroleum zone and imports it from other countries. Pakistan import its goods and services in US dollar which source the prices of petrol to get higher and when the price of oil cut in worldwide market, no major changes occur in petrol prices because of the taxes implied by the government. The tax rate on petrol prices reaching an all-time higher level in 2016 20% sales tax apply on petroleum products. Bilal Hassan said in World times that “Tax system in Pakistan mostly depends on indirect taxation and collect their tax revenues mostly from indirect taxation for balancing their budget. Indirect tax includes: custom duty, sales tax and federal tax duty. 2. Literature review Rehana siddiqui said that motor spirit is mainly demanded by transport sector. Energy in mainly depend on motor spirit in Pakistan. For example motor spirit depends on the vehicle’s conditions, average road speed, and acceleration rate. Therefore addition in price and also addition in transport sector.