The imported government has kept the people of Pakistan deprived of relief in the prices of petroleum products as it has maintained the petrol and other POL rates unchanged whereas the prices in the international oil market has drastically decreased.
In a video address on Wednesday night, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar announced that the POL products rates will remain unchanged as they continued for some time.
In the latest review on November 15, 2022 the government decided to keep the prices unchanged for the fortnight ending November 30, 2022.
It was third straight announcement to keep the prices of petroleum products unchanged. Previously, on September 30, 2022 the government made changes in petroleum prices.
However, the price of petrol will remain unchanged at Rs224.80 per litre for the next fortnight, December 1 to 15, Dar announced.
Dar said the price of high-speed diesel will also remain the same at Rs235.30 per litre.
He announced that the price of kerosene oil has been slashed by Rs10 per litre, while light diesel oil has been reduced by Rs7.50 per litre.
The finance minister also announced the extension of the date for filing tax returns after which citizens can file taxes by December 15.
It is pertinent to mention here that the government is thinking to impose tax on petroleum products to avert imminent shortfall in revenue collection.
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Reports suggested that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is anticipating massive revenue shortfall in coming months due to no tax on petroleum products besides slowdown in economic activity.
Reportedly, the FBR may face about Rs500 billion as shortfall in the current fiscal year.
After the first quarter (July–September) 2022/2023, the FBR claimed to present extraordinary performance in revenue collection. “This performance in revenue collection is despite zero rating of Sales Tax on POL products, import compression and the prevailing situation of floods,” the FBR said in a press release.
Experts believed that the imposition of sales tax on petroleum products would increase the retail prices as well as result in high inflation.
At present the government adopted a policy to keep zero sales tax on petroleum products instead flat rate of 17 per cent. Furthermore, the government also committed to apply petroleum levy to generate more revenue for curtailing budget deficit.
