ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry said on Saturday that for reducing burden of increasing international petroleum prices, the government has been reducing tax rate on fuel.In a statement, the minister said that in January this year international Brent crude price was $51 per barrel, whereas in July, it has touched $75 mark which was an increase of 47 percent. He said that in January, Petrol Price in Pakistan was Rs106 per litre and now in July it is being sold at Rs118 per litre which is only 11.3 percent increase.
Fawad Chaudhry said if petroleum levy was kept at Dec 2020 level of Rs30, which was the maximum the government can charge, the additional collection would have been about Rs200 billion.
He said for July the foregone approximate Rs27 billion tax would have been collected, if the government had kept sales tax at Rs17 percent and levy at Rs15 as per IMF Programme (pre-COVID level). He said that average tax on per litre petrol during last six months of PMLN government was Rs22.5 compared to only Rs11.5 currently.