Daily Times

The government is charging Rs35 less under the heads of petroleum levy and general sales tax to provide relief to the people from the masses; otherwise, the petrol price would have been Rs180 per litre. Muzzammil Aslam, spokesperson to the Finance Ministry, stated this in a tweet on Friday, saying the federal government is charging 1.43 percent sales tax on petrol products instead of 17 percent. He added the price of petrol would have been Rs160 per litre if the government continues to charge 17 percent sales tax.

He further said that the government has also surrendered a petroleum levy of Rs30 per litre. In this context, the government is not charging Rs35 from the masses else the petrol price would have been Rs180 per litre, he further said.

Meanwhile, the ministry in a statement said that despite financial constraints and exorbitant prices of petroleum products at the international market,the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government has kept the petrol price at the lowest level as compared to the regional countries including India and Bangladesh. The prices of petroleum products in the world market have increased by over 100 percent in a short span of time, but the government passed on its impact to consumers by just 30 percent by maintaining the motor spirit oil cost at the lowermost possible rate of Rs145.82 per litre. Contrary to it, the per litre price of petrol in India and Bangladesh in terms of Pakistani rupees is Rs251.57 and Rs212 respectively.

The government early Friday jacked up the prices of petrol and diesel by more than Rs8 per litre. According to a notification issued by the Finance Division, the price of petrol has been hiked by Rs8.03 to Rs145.82 per litre while that of high-speed diesel by Rs8.14 to Rs142.62 per litre.