POL price hike slammed

LAHORE: The Pakistan Industrial and Traders Associations Front (PIAF) has condemned the government for increasing prices of three major petroleum products; Rs20 per kilogram increase in LPG, which will cause an additional burden of around Rs700 million on the consumers in this month, a statement said on Saturday.

PIAF acting chairman Nasir Hameed and Vice Chairman Javed Siddiqui said it is unfortunate that besides 17 percent GST, the government has more than doubled the rate of petroleum levy on HSD in recent months to Rs21 /litre from Rs8/litre, while levy on petrol has also been increased by 50 percent to Rs17.20/litre from Rs10/litre.

In recent months, the government had already increased the general sales tax on all petroleum products to the standard rate of 17 percent to generate additional revenue. Until January this year, the government was charging 0.5 percenot GST on LDO, two percent on kerosene, eight percent on petrol and 13 percent on HSD.

They said this hike in fuel rates would lead to increasing cost of production and the cost of doing business, as well. The high cost of doing business is hindering Pakistan in achieving its export target, they said.