POL products: SHC directs govt to submit mechanism for increase in prices

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court has directed the federal law officer to submit comments detailing the formula and relevant law applied for making increase in the price of petroleum products.

The direction came on petitions with regard to continuous hike in petroleum product prices by the federal government.

An SHC’s division bench, headed by Justice Mohammad Iqbal Kalhoro, also directed the federal law officer to submit the procedure if any adopted with regard to the increase in petroleum products' prices.

The court directed the federal law officer to also appraise whether there was any committee which makes such decision, and if so on what basis and what was the structure to be followed for such decision.

The court also questioned that how much levy was imposed and can be imposed on per liter under the law.

The petitioner, Maulvi Iqbal Haider, submitted that the federal government was continuously increasing the petroleum products’ prices without adopting the due process under the law.

He submitted that the federal government was charging more than Rs 47 per litre taxes on petrol and high speed diesel as the petroleum levy on both the items while the government had already increased the general sales tax on all the petroleum products to a standard rate of 17 percent across-the-board to generate additional revenues.

He submitted that the prices of all the necessary items had automatically increased due to the unjustified increase in the petroleum products’ prices and the people belonging to the lower income groups had to bear the maximum brunt of such inflation.

The SHC was requested to declare that the formula for an increase in the prices of petroleum products was required to be placed before Parliament for its approval as such any formula with regard to increase in petroleum products prices without approval of Parliament is unjust and arbitrary.

Later, the court directed the federal law officer to submit the comments on the next hearing.