Govt withdraws concession of taxes on petroleum

By Ishfaq A Mughal

The Federal Government withdrew concession of petroleum levy on the petroleum products and increased the prices by 9.9 percent for the month of March.

Addressing a press conference in Islamabad on Monday mid-night the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) spokesman Syed Jawad Naseem said the petrol price was increased by Rs7.23 per liter while the new price of gasoline was Rs.80.19. High Speed Diesel by Rs7.76 to Rs86.09 per liter, Light Speed Diesel made expensive by Rs.6.60, HOBC Rs8.58 to Rs95.25, and Kerosene Oil Rs7 to Rs77.95 per liter.

The government has increased Petroleum Levy from Rs. 2.20 to Rs. 6.25 per liter on petrol, from Rs 4.84 to Rs 9.80 per liter on HOBC, from Rs 0.55 to Rs 3.75 per liter on High Speed Diesel Oil (HDO). The government also increased sales tax on petroleum products adding that sales tax increased from Rs 10.60 to 11.65 per liter on Petrol, from Rs 12.59 to 13.84 per liter on HOBC, from Rs 10.31 to 11.33 per liter on Kerosene, from Rs 9.68 to 10.64 per liter on Light Diesel Oil and from Rs 11.38 to 12.51 per liter on HSD for March.

According to the spokesman, the government increased ex-refinery prices of petrol by Rs 2.14 per liter, Rs. 2.37 per liter on HOBC, Rs 5.03 per liter on kerosene, Rs. 5.64 per liter on LDO and Rs. 3.45 per liter on HSD for March while remaining increment belongs to taxed including petroleum levy and sales tax.

The government had kept the price of petroleum products unchanged for the past two months as a result of pressure from all the mainstream political parties.

The spokesman claimed that despite the increase the government will take burden Rs 5 billion during the month as it did not passed on the full increment on petroleum products.