The debate on hike in petroleum prices during the Senate session on Tuesday was marred by frequent interruptions and walkouts staged by treasury and opposition parties, as lawmakers from both sides were seemingly agitated and infuriated over certain remarks by Adviser on Petroleum Dr Asim Hussain.
The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) members twice staged walkouts – first to protest the POL price hike and then over Dr Asim’s remarks that OGRA was not answerable to anyone but the cabinet.
Awami National Party (ANP) lawmakers also staged a walkout over the statement, with Haji Adeel expressing no confidence in Dr Asim, saying rather than defending the price increase, the adviser should find a way to decrease the POL prices. Dr Asim, who strongly defended the POL prices hike and the role of OGRA in fixing oil prices, even irked Senate Chairman Syed Nayyer Hussain Bokhari, who interrupted the adviser in middle of his statement and said OGRA was answerable to both Houses of parliament and their officials should have been present in the House to respond to the questions raised by the senators.
Bokhari said the assertion by the adviser that OGRA was not answerable to anyone and rather it worked under the cabinet was irritating for the lawmakers. He said OGRA, not the adviser, should have responded to the questions raised by the senators, as the Ministry of Petroleum did not fix oil prices.
Bokhari said the parliamentary leaders and the leaders of the House and the opposition should sit after the session and discuss a way out of the matter. During his winding up speech, Dr Asim said there were no hidden taxes being charged by the government in terms of petroleum products and the formula evolved by OGRA for monitoring of prices of petroleum prices was transparent and there was no fudging whatsoever in oil-price-fixing mechanism. Earlier, a motion was moved by opposition and treasury senators to discuss the recent hike in oil prices. The motion had been moved jointly by Leader of the Opposition Senator Ishaq Dar, Begum Nuzhat Sadiq, Col (r) Tahir Mashhadi, Zahid Khan, Afrasiab Khattak, Haji Adeel and Shahi Syed.
Dr Asim said the ministry used to make calculations of the fluctuations in oil prices. He said the petroleum prices were calculated under a mechanism on the basis of Arab freight rates, under which inland freight margins and overseas margins were charged.
“Moreover, Rs 10 per liter are charged under the petroleum levy (PL), while Rs 8 per liter are charged for diesel. The GST is also charged later,” he said, adding that the government had bagged a total of Rs 323 billion under GST on petroleum products in year 2011-12. He also brushed aside the impression that the GST was used by the federal government and said that the GST was divided between the federal and provincial governments.
“Of the total Rs 323 billion, the federal government got Rs 129 billion while the rest were transferred to the provinces. The Punjab government was provided Rs 114 billion, Sindh was given Rs 44 billion, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa received Rs 21 billion, Balochistan got Rs 12 billion and AJK was given Rs 1 billion,” he said. “This is wrong to assume that the federal government is taking advantage of the GST on petroleum prices, rather provinces are also getting their share”.
Dr Asim also said that it was also a wrong impression that the oil prices were only being changed in Pakistan on a weekly basis and said the decision to review petroleum prices was taken after taking on board all stakeholders, including the industry. He said oil prices fluctuated regularly across the globe and in some cases, they changed twice a day according to market rates.
About the raise in CNG prices, the adviser said the prices were fixed at 60 percent of petrol prices. He said CNG would not survive longer due to gas shortage in the country.
Dr Asim also differed from the view that oil companies were making hefty amounts of profits in Pakistan.
Taking part in the debate earlier, Ishaq Dar urged the government to share with the House the mechanism to fix oil prices. He suggested that petroleum levy revenue should be reflected in the budget. He said even the allied parties of the government had distanced themselves from POL price raise.
He later led a walkout with all PML-N members to protest oil prices raise.
Nuzhat Sadiq claimed that the government had not followed the OGRA Act. She said there was no connection of CNG prices with POL prices and the government had bagged Rs 250 billion through taxing petroleum products.
Col (r) Tahir Mashhadi called the oil price raise unfair and said the poor faced the brunt of price hike. He praised the patience of the people at large and said OGRA was a looting the poor.
Senator Zahid Khan termed the POL price hike a joke with the public that would further jeopardize the lives of the poverty-stricken people.
He asked how OGRA could be sovereign if parliament was not sovereign.
Afrasiab Khattak lamented a “wave of price hike” every week with the rise in POL prices.
He called on the government to form a national economic policy taking on board all political forces, including the opposition and treasury benches.
Haji Adeel said his party ANP would not support any government move for which his party was not consulted.
He later led a walkout from the House.