Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has out rightly rejected a revenue generation proposal of the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) to impose a lower rate of sales tax on all petroleum products from February 1, 2023.
Sources informed ProPakistani that the FBR has moved a summary to Finance Minister Ishaq Dar for imposing a lower rate of sales tax on all petroleum products. The FBR has proposed to impose a 2-5 percent lower rate of sales tax on all petroleum products. However, the FBR’s proposal was rejected by the Finance Minister.
The sales tax has not been imposed on petroleum products on January 29. Sales tax rates remained zero percent on POL items. Therefore, the FBR has not issued any notification. The FBR wanted to gradually raise the sales tax rate of petroleum products, sources added.
Pertinently, the federal government announced a massive increase in the price of petroleum products on Sunday morning, two days before the scheduled fortnightly review. Along with petrol, the price of high-speed diesel has also been increased by Rs. 35 per liter. The price of light diesel oil (LDO) and kerosene oil has also been increased by Rs. 18 per liter.
With the increase, the price of petrol will now be Rs. 249.80 per liter while the price of HSD will be Rs. 262.80 per liter. Similarly, the new price of kerosene oil will be Rs. 189.83 while the price of light diesel oil with Rs. 187 per liter.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission will visit Pakistan on January 31 to resume discussions on the stalled 9th review of the $7 billion Extended Fund Facility (EFF).
Last week, ProPakistani first reported that IMF turned down Pakistan’s request for sending its team for the completion of the 9th review and asked the Finance Ministry to first take all prior actions. Following the lender’s clear message, a Rs. 300 billion mini-budget was announced, and the PKR crashed to an all-time low of 262.6 against USD, while fuel prices were jacked up as mentioned above.
