Side by Side: Who Sets the Price of Petrol, and How Often?

Every government says the price of petrol is set by the market. Then it decides how often to let the market speak.

Pakistan

Behind today’s letter: a formula the cabinet approved on 17 July, applied by the regulator, with Friday’s price held over the weekend. The petroleum levy alone reached Rs80 a litre in July, with another Rs5 for the climate. The price moves. The levy stays put.

India

The state oil companies have revised prices every morning at six since June 2017. In practice they did not move them at all from April 2022 until a Rs2 cut in March 2024, and then raised them by Rs3 in May this year. A daily price that has changed twice in four years.

China

The state planner adjusts prices whenever its formula shows a change of more than 50 yuan a tonne over ten working days, but not at all if crude is below $40 a barrel or above $130. In September it allowed a rise of 395 yuan where the formula said 830. A formula, with a supervisor.

The Gulf

The Emirates reset prices once a month, by committee, as they have since 2015; Special 95 rose from Dh3.69 to Dh4.28 for October. In Saudi Arabia, Aramco’s prices for 91 and 95 have not moved all year: SAR2.18 and SAR2.33.

Southeast Asia

Malaysia prices weekly by formula, but since September 2025 citizens pay RM1.99 a litre for up to 300 litres a month, against RM2.60 for everyone else.

South Korea and Japan

Seoul has cut its tax on petrol since November 2021, now by 15 percent, extended again to the end of November. Tokyo abolished its 25.1-yen provisional tax at the end of 2025, then brought back subsidies in March to hold the average pump price near 170 yen.

Australia

The competition regulator says plainly that it “does not set fuel prices.” City petrol stations set their own, in cycles: about a week in Perth, five weeks in Sydney, six and a half in Brisbane. The cycles have mostly paused since late February.

North America

Canada scrapped its consumer carbon tax of 17.6 cents a litre in April 2025. Mexico keeps a voluntary pact with retailers, renewed every six months, to hold regular petrol under 24 pesos and diesel under 27; diesel averaged 27.01.

Verdict

Islamabad resets the price every working day. New Delhi could, and mostly does not. Beijing does every ten days unless it would rather not. The Emirates wait for the month, Riyadh for something it has not yet announced, and Perth’s petrol stations keep their own weather. Everywhere the price is a political decision wearing arithmetic as a coat.