Sir: The federal government has for the third consecutive month further reduced the prices of POL products, thus giving a New Year’s gift to the people in general and motorists in particular. The oil products prices in the latest periodical review have been reduced by up to 13 per cent but the benefit so accruing to the motorists has been slashed to some extent by imposing five percent additional GST on all POL products in order to earn a windfall of Rs 17 billion. In this way, the federal government has given some good news to the motorists and also tagged it with bad news by levying an unjustifiable tax at the same time. Thus, the happiness of the motorists was cut by almost half. The people at large would certainly have been happier if the federal and provincial governments had come down harshly on the profiteers to check and control at least to some extent the mounting hike in prices of essential articles instead of merely making tall claims of bringing down the prices of daily use items. MUHAMMAD MURTAZA ZISHAN Lahore