The imported government has once again kept the people of Pakistan deprived of relief in the prices of petroleum products as it has nominally reduced the rates of the petrol and other POL products whereas the prices in the global oil market has drastically decreased recently.
Minister for Finance and Revenue Senator Ishaq Dar on Thursday announced that the price of petrol has been decreased by Rs10 to Rs214.80 per litre for the next fortnight effective from December 16.
In a video address, the finance minister said the price reduction was made in line with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s aspirations of “providing maximum” relief to the masses.
As a result of the revised rates of petroleum products, diesel will now be available at Rs214.80 after a reduction of Rs7.5. The price of kerosene oil and light diesel oil have also been slashed to Rs171.83 and Rs169, respectively.
Earlier on Dec 1, the government kept the POL products’ prices unchanged as they continued for some time.
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In the review on November 15, 2022 the government also decided to keep the prices unchanged for the fortnight ending November 30, 2022.
However, the price of petrol remained unchanged at Rs224.80 per litre for the next fortnight, December 1 to 15, Dar announced.
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.
