ISLAMABAD – The parliamentary committee formed to settle the petroleum products pricing formula has expressed dissatisfaction over the Ministry of Petroleum’s presentation, opposed any hikes and has sought replies on various queries by Thursday.
A source said the committee members criticized the government mechanism of passing on the increase in international oil prices to the consumers, without bothering to consider providing relief through the petroleum levy (PL) and general sales tax (GST). They were unanimous in opposing any hike in petroleum prices.
The parliamentarians, the source said, were dissatisfied with the briefing of the Petroleum Ministry and raised many queries to which the authorities were not able to give satisfactory replies. With the failure of the meeting, the government will fail to meet the deadline of January 26 to finalise the issue with the PML-N.
The ministry informed the meeting that the government will incur a loss of Rs 12.2 billion for the December-February period if the increase in international petroleum prices is not passed on to the consumers. The members asked the ministry to furnish details of petroleum development levy and general sales tax during the last financial year as well as during the first six months of the current fiscal year. However, the officials said they did not have the details.
