News
Thursday, February 23, 2012
OGRA set to drop another petrol bomb* Authority tells special parliamentary committee petroleum prices will be increased by up to Rs 7.3 a litre from March 1
* Hafeez Shaikh says not possible to reduce POL prices
By Zeeshan Javaid
ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary committee failed to win relief for people on Wednesday when the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) said petroleum prices could be increased by up to Rs 7.30 per litre in March.
The Special Parliamentary Committee on Prices of Petroleum Products not even failed to withdraw OGRA’s increase of prices for the ongoing month, it also could not ensure relief for people in March.
OGRA told the committee that the price of petrol was likely to be increased by Rs 3.60 a litre, light diesel oil by Rs 2.68 a litre, high speed diesel by Rs 1.78 per litre, kerosene oil by Rs 2.69 per litre and high octane by Rs 7.30 a litre.
The committee, which met without its chairman Syed Naveed Qamar, did not put up much of resistance to OGRA’s proposed hike in prices. The PML-Q’s Riaz Hussain Pirzada chaired the session while the PML-N’s Rana Tanveer Hussain was the only other member in attendance. The committee was told that the price of Arabian light crude oil price has touched $120 per barrel in the current month.
Briefing the committee, Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance Hafeez Shaikh said that it was not possible to reduce petroleum prices because they are linked with the global market. He said the government only receives 16 percent general sales tax (GST) and Rs 10 per litre petroleum levy on petrol and Rs 6.5 per litre on high speed diesel.
“Nearly 70 percent of the taxes are being shifted to provincial governments after the approval of National Finance Award (NFC) and 18th Amendment,” the adviser said.
He said that during the last four years, the government paid more than Rs 1,000 billion in subsidies on electricity. He added that inflation rate has been brought down to 10 percent from 25 percent in 2008.
Petroleum Secretary Ijaz Chaudhary said prices in the local market are expected to increase due to an increase in prices in the international market.
The Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) Abdul Sattar said that this year’s GST collection on POL products has reached Rs 146 billion against last year’s collection of Rs 114 billion. Furthermore, the government has set a revenue target of Rs 120 billion under the head of petroleum levy but it has so far collected only Rs 30 billion, which is Rs 45 billion below the target.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk