Slashing GST by Rs5/litre on POL products: Centre, provinces yet to reach consensus

TAHIR AMIN & WASIM IQBAL

ISLAMABAD: The federal and provincial governments have not yet given their comments on the recommendations of the special parliamentary committee reviewing the price of petroleum products, to reduce General Sales Tax (GST) by Rs 5 per litre on petroleum products.

The federal and provincial governments have yet to reach a consensus over reducing General Sales Tax (GST) by Rs.5 per litre on petroleum products and, therefore, delaying the reduction in prices of petroleum products, revealed a member of the special parliamentary committee.

He said that the committee had written letters to all the provincial governments and sought their recommendations within a week to slash GST on petroleum productions by Rs.5 per litre. However, he said the parliamentary committee has yet to receive any response from the provinces.  The next committee meeting would likely be held after receiving response from the provinces. This decision was taken in the meeting held on February 21. It's almost three weeks and no response has so far been received from the provinces, he lamented.

The National Assembly on February 15 unanimously adopted a resolution to revisit the increase in petroleum prices. The resolution was moved by Chaudhry Ahsan Iqbal of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) proposing a committee be established that would submit its recommendations within a week. The resolution also called for an immediate withdrawal of increase in the petroleum prices to avoid further inflation.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani established a parliamentary committee to discuss the issue with the finance minister. The member of parliamentary committee further revealed that Ministry of Finance assured the committee that federal government is willing to slash Rs 5 GST per litre if all the provinces agree to it.

Chairman Syed Naveed Qamar was not available in the last meeting of the committee that did not put up much of resistance to Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra's) proposed hike in prices. The PML-Q's Riaz Hussain Pirzada chaired the session while the PML-N's Rana Tanveer Hussain was the only other member in attendance.