BMP Slams Govt For Consecutively Increasing POL Prices In Last Six Months

Karachi, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 01st Mar, 2018) : The Businessmen Panel (BMP) has said that the government increased 18 rupees per litre on diesel and 16 rupees on petrol in the last six months which may continue to enhance difficulties of trade and industry and the people of Pakistan, despite the fact government already charged forty rupees tax per liter on diesel and thirty four rupees tax per liter on petrol, instead of decreased the slap of tax from the POL prices government keep continue to follow OGRA summary amicably every month.

Chairman BMP Mian Anjum Nisar said on Thursday that the petrol and High Speed Diesel (HSD) are two major products that generate most of revenue for the government because of their massive and yet growing consumption in the country.

He said that the HSD sales across the country are now going beyond 800,000 tonnes per month against monthly consumption of around 700,000 tonnes of petrol and in contrast Pakistan's economy will most likely be faced with tougher challenges in the second half of the current fiscal year as it remains heavily dependent on imported fuel oil whose prices are steadily on the rise, and in view of this Pakistan's annual inflation climbed to 4.4 per cent in January from 3.7pc in the same month last year mainly due to hike in petroleum prices Mian Anjum said good days seem to be over as second half's (January-June 2018) import bill will be significantly higher than the first half of current fiscal year 2017-18.

He said Petroleum goods remain heavily taxed to make up a significant chunk of the revenue collected by the government and we will not stand for the economic murder of the country. "Currently government charged heft taxes on POL products from the consumer which is not acceptable".

He further said high oil prices mean that Pakistan's export competitiveness goes down and our exports already falling, this is something the country can ill afford.

It also raises questions about the decision to depreciate the Pakistani rupee which took recently.

BMP Secretary General (Federal), Ahmad Jawad has slammed the recent hike in prices of petroleum products and called on the government to withdraw its decision, instead of increasing petroleum prices, the government should focus on reducing taxes and duties on POL products and control non-development expenditures added that the country's energy import bill has already risen heftily as global oil prices have spiked by almost a third in the last several months, it's likely to increase considerably going forward.

He told rising oil prices will add to pressure on the country's forex reserves, widen trade gap which already plunged to $17 billion in last seven months as we spend more on the energy import bill, push domestic power prices, increase the already high cost of doing business affecting export competitiveness, expand budget deficit, spike inflation and squeeze household incomes.

Jawad also viewed "It is not good news for Pakistan whenever oil goes up our economy tanks, as rising prices will have consequences for the embattled PML-N in an election year". He further viewed I don't know how country agriculture sector could survived in this high HSD rate despite our agriculture products were already non competitive in the international market.

"I think Ministry of National food and Security should discuss the officials of Ministry of Energy Division that 50% farmers used tube wells on engine diesels, in that rate how they could irrigate their lands properly." He suggested the Minister Power Division Sardar Awais Laghari that being agriculturist we should adopt Indian agriculture model to save our agriculture sector from these monthly shocks which arise from your ministry.