Rising prices of petroleum products in Pakistan, is the government telling the whole story to the people?

In any country in the world, when the price of petroleum products goes up, everything becomes more expensive. This is because petroleum products are used in the manufacture of almost everything and in the vehicles, trains, ships used to transport everything.

In other words, petrol has become oxygen which is needed by everyone and it affects everyone.

That is why governments in every country keep a close eye on oil prices.

This time in Pakistan, the government has raised the prices of petroleum products to a record high, raising petrol and diesel prices to the highest level in the country's history. However, the government says it has also reduced taxes for the benefit of the people.

But the question is whether the government has not concealed the whole picture from the public by manipulating various taxes on petrol.

What taxes have been changed in the price of petrol?

Following the latest hike in petrol and diesel prices, the price of a liter of petrol has been fixed at Rs 145.82 and diesel at Rs 142.62. The rise in prices of petroleum products by the government has been attributed to rising crude oil prices in the global market.

In this regard, the government has claimed that it has reduced the rate of sales tax on the prices of petroleum products. However, the government has almost doubled the rate of Petroleum Development Levy (PDL).

Oil and economists and analysts see the government's claim as one side of the picture.

According to him, the government is not giving other reasons for the sharp rise in prices of oil products, including the depreciation of the rupee against the dollar and the import of crude oil on crude and finished products. There are taxes that are raising the price.

According to experts, world oil prices have stabilized over the past month, but Pakistan has not been able to take advantage of it.

What is the government's claim?

Following the latest hike in petroleum prices by the government, it has been claimed that it has kept the sales tax on petrol prices at the lowest level since 2009 to burden consumers with rising oil prices. Can be reduced.

When contacted, Muzammil Aslam, spokesman for Finance Minister Shaukat Tareen, said the government would collect only 1.43 per cent sales tax.

According to him, "before this, the government was collecting sales tax at the rate of 6.43%."

Muzammil Aslam said the law allows the government to levy a sales tax of up to 17% on petroleum products, but the rate has been reduced to protect the public from higher prices.

He said that if 17% sales tax was collected on the price of petrol alone, its price would go up to Rs. 160 per liter.

Muzammil Aslam described the current sales tax rate as the lowest level in history.

How much did the government increase the levy tax rate?

On the one hand, the federal government has claimed to provide relief to the people by reducing the sales tax rate, on the other hand, the government has increased the rate of Petroleum Development Levy (PDL) in the latest price review. ۔

PDL per liter of petrol has been increased from Rs 5.62 to Rs 9.62. Due to the increase in the rate of PDL, the price of petrol has gone up by Rs.

Commenting on this, Muzammil Aslam said that the rate of PDL has been increased but its rate is still very low. He said that the law allows the government to receive PDL up to Rs. 30 per liter and in the previous government PDL was also received at this rate.

He asserted that his confession had been obtained through torture and that his confession had been obtained through torture.

He said that so far due to low collection of PDL, the government has been able to collect less than its original target in the budget so as to save the people from higher prices.

Economist Dr. Ikram-ul-Haq said that the increase in PDL has been done under the terms of IMF.

He said that in the budget of the current financial year, the government has to collect more than Rs 600 billion in taxes under PDL, so it is now increasing its tax collection by increasing PDL.

Dr Ikram said the government's claim that it had benefited the people by reducing sales tax did not do much harm to the federal government in terms of taxes.

He said that by collecting less sales tax, the government has actually affected the share of the provinces as the money collected in the form of sales tax is transferred to the provinces.

He said that the government collected its taxes in the form of PDL but it has hurt the provinces in the same way.