SHAFAQNA PAKISTAN (Shia News Agency)
It seems that period of relief is over and petroleum prices will soon be once again going up. Reportedly, the government was all set to jack up the prices of petrol in this month but restrained. Pakistani nation has been buying Petroleum products at higher rate as compared to the other countries. The reason behind this is imposition of General Sale’s tax. Despite a strong protest by the opposition parties, the government violated the constitution and imposed an additional GST of 10 percent through an executive order. The imposition of taxes is the domain of parliament but the government has done it thorough an administrative decision while ignoring the necessary parliamentary process. Presently, the rate of GST and excise duty in Pakistan is the highest in the region. There is no logical justification for such an increase. Possibly, the government is perturbed to meet the ambitious revenue targets, which have been set on the instructions of the International Monetary Fund. Amid declining foreign exchange reserves, the sale of POL is a cash cow for the Ministry of Finance as 25 percent revenue comes from the oil and gas sector. The government supports an exorbitant increase in GST in order to keep the budget on track. This is not a strong argument because an increase in demand has already offset this shortfall and there is no reason to withhold the complete benefit of a fall in oil prices. During the last three months, fuel prices have decreased by almost 40 percent but the impact of this huge reduction has not been witnessed on the inflation rate. No considerable cut in the prices of daily use commodities and transportation fares has been in evidence. Unless the impact of low POL prices transcends to lower level it is useless.
pakistan.shafaqna.com
