ISLAMABAD With the good news of consensus on Constitutional Reforms, the government Wednesday tagged the bad news for consumers as it jacked prices of petroleum products up by 5 per cent. Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority issued notification late Wednesday night to give effect to the prices increase from April 1, 2010. The new prices would remain effective till end of April. Although the prices of petroleum products are directly linked to international crude oil market, critics blame the government for overloading the petroleum tariffs with excessive taxes. Since Pakistans oil market is mostly import based, the increase in international prices goes in favour of the government that gets enhanced revenue from duties and taxes. An OGRA press release claimed that increase in the Arab Gulf petroleum products prices over the month of March soared by one to eight per cent necessitated this increase in domestic prices. According to the OGRA notification, price of the Motor Spirit would go up by four per cent from Rs 70.57 to Rs 73.14 with a jump of Rs 2.57 per litre. Likewise, HOBC soared by two per cent from Rs 86.06 to Rs 87.56 after increase of Rs 1.5 a litre. So-called poor mans fuel Kerosene was rather given a quantum jump of five per cent as it moved up from Rs 61.5 to Rs 64.81 a litre showing an increase of Rs 3.31. Light Diesel Oil also surged by five per cent from Rs 59.47 to Rs 62.2 with a jump of Rs 2.73 a litre. The OGRA notification did not include the price change in the High Speed Diesel (HSD), but sources told TheNation that the Pakistan State Oil has accordingly notified increase in domestic prices as the international tariff of the transport fuel soared by eight per cent. Analysts feared that this increase in prices of petroleum products might trigger public unrest again as the memories of last month Islamabad riots over the public transport fares increase were still fresh. Public transport fares traditionally follow price change in HSD.