Reporting snapshot · 19 September 2026. The Prime Minister's Office and the National Steering Committee on Fuel Subsidy announced the revisions on 18–19 September after the first 48 hours of the nationwide rollout. New pump prices apply from 19 to 21 September. Beneficiary counts and the full operational impact are not yet independently verifiable.
What happened
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif approved a revised structure for the fuel relief scheme on Friday, and the government announced the changes on Saturday 19 September 2026 after reviewing public feedback from the first 48 hours of the scheme’s nationwide rollout. The revisions, confirmed by the Prime Minister’s Office and a National Steering Committee meeting chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, remove the requirement to buy a minimum of five litres in one transaction, introduce a weekly Rs500 token, and extend eligibility to motorcycles, rickshaws and Qingqis registered on or after 1 January 2006.
On the same day, the Petroleum Division cut the ex-depot price of petrol by Rs1.65 to Rs389.14 per litre and high-speed diesel by Rs0.88 to Rs424.04 per litre, effective from 19 to 21 September, after a week in which fuel prices had risen to their highest levels in months. Taxes and duties of Rs114 per litre on petrol and Rs100 per litre on diesel remain unchanged.
Who qualifies under the revised rules
The original scheme, announced on 13 September, offered a Rs100-per-litre discount on petrol to users of motorcycles, rickshaws and other two- and three-wheelers on a monthly quota of 20 litres, and to owners of cars with engines up to 800cc on a monthly quota of 30 litres. Under the revised rules, two- and three-wheeler users no longer face the five-litre minimum purchase that previously accompanied each token. Instead they receive a weekly token worth Rs500, redeemable for fuel in any quantity, with up to four tokens issued in a month.
The eligibility age limit for two- and three-wheelers has been raised from 15 to 20 years, meaning vehicles registered on or after 1 January 2006 — including 20-year-old motorcycles, rickshaws and Qingqis — can now be registered for the scheme. The arrangement for cars with engines up to 800cc is unchanged: eligible owners receive one 10-litre token every 10 days, equivalent to three tokens a month.
The government has directed that the full Rs500 value of the token be passed on to the consumer and that fuel stations not apply any deduction or service charge. Registration continues through the SMS process to 9771, as described in KhabarWire’s earlier guide to the scheme.
Why the rules changed
The revisions respond to implementation problems that surfaced when the scheme went live nationally. Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, chairing the National Steering Committee on Fuel Subsidy, reviewed registration, token redemption and payment settlements with participating stations and considered feedback from the first two days of the nationwide rollout, which followed the initial launch on 13 September and the government’s wider austerity and fuel-conservation measures.
Officials said the removal of the five-litre minimum was intended to help users who cannot afford to buy several litres at once. Dar also directed the State Bank of Pakistan to provide payment-status reports twice daily, at 11am and 7pm, so that rejected transactions and their reasons can be identified and resolved without delay. He ordered alternative arrangements for fuel stations in areas with limited or no internet connectivity, including Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and remote rural areas, so that no eligible beneficiary loses access because of location.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhry said around 24 million people are currently benefiting from the scheme. The figure is a government estimate and has not been independently verified.
What the price cut means
The reduction of Rs1.65 per litre on petrol and Rs0.88 per litre on high-speed diesel is modest against the increases that preceded it. Petrol was Rs364.35 a litre on 9 September and reached about Rs391.22 on 17 September after a run of daily increases linked to disruption in the Gulf and the closure of major shipping routes, before Friday’s cut. The new prices, notified by the Petroleum Division and effective from 19 to 21 September, are set under the daily petroleum pricing mechanism the government introduced on 17 July.
Because Pakistan imports more than 80 per cent of its petroleum needs, movements in Gulf benchmarks pass quickly into pump prices, and the relief scheme and price cuts are part of the government’s response to a fuel shock that has also raised transport and goods costs. The relief applies only to petrol, so the Rs500 weekly token does not directly reduce the cost of diesel for buses or heavy transport.
What is still uncertain
The central question is operational delivery. The scheme’s first days were marked by friction at the pumps: the Pakistan Petroleum Dealers Association initially said its members would not sell under the new mechanism, before talks with the government led dealers to begin fuel sales under the scheme from 17 September. The revised token rules are intended to ease that friction, but the government has not yet published redemption or payment data that would show how many of the roughly 24 million claimed beneficiaries have actually received subsidised petrol.
It is also unclear how many additional beneficiaries the extension to 20-year-old vehicles adds, whether the twice-daily payment reports will resolve disputes with stations quickly, and how the offline arrangements for low-connectivity areas will work in practice. The government has not given a firm end date for the programme; earlier estimates put the monthly cost of the scheme in the tens of billions of rupees. The original announcement of the scheme set out the baseline terms; this article records the revisions made on 19 September 2026.
Sources & reporting notes
This is a synthesis of published material, not eyewitness reporting. Sources were reviewed on 19 September 2026.
- Dawn — PM widens fuel subsidy, eases weekly limitsPublished 19 September 2026 · The revised structure approved by the prime minister, the Rs500 weekly token, the removal of quantity limits, the 20-year vehicle-age extension and the ~24m beneficiary figure.
- Radio Pakistan — DPM reviews implementation of PM's Special Relief SchemePublished 18 September 2026 · Primary official record of the National Steering Committee review, the removal of the five-litre minimum, the Rs500 weekly token, the 15-to-20-year age extension and the offline arrangements directive.
- Pakistan Today — Govt expands fuel relief scheme to include 20-year-old motorcycles, rickshawsPublished 18 September 2026 · Independent coverage of the widened eligibility, the registration process and the dealers' concerns.
- The Express Tribune — Govt decreases petrol price by Rs1.65, HSD by 88 paisas till Sept 21Published 18 September 2026 · The Petroleum Division notification and the new ex-depot prices for 19–21 September.
- Geo News — Petroleum dealers begin fuel sales under relief scheme after talks with govtPublished 17 September 2026 · Independent reporting on the dealers' initial refusal, the talks with the government and the resumption of sales, and the waiving of SMS charges.
