Photo: ReutersPetroleum Minister Ali Pervaiz Malik on Thursday defended the government's daily fuel pricing mechanism, saying it had ended the practice of oil companies restricting petrol supplies in anticipation of price revisions under the previous system. Read More: Daily fuel pricing drives freight surgeExplaining the new system, the minister said international benchmark prices are sourced from Platts before government taxes and oil companies' margins are added to determine domestic retail prices. He argued that the shift to daily pricing had addressed a major flaw in the previous mechanism. Ogra Acting Chairman Nabeel Ahmed Awan said daily prices continue to be calculated using the seven-day average of international market prices. If global oil prices fall, he said, the reduction is gradually passed on to consumers over seven days.