The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has reduced sales tax on petroleum products, effective from May 1, 2021, to keep prices of the petroleum products unchanged during May.

The FBR had to amend S.R.O. 57(I)/2016 (sales tax on petroleum products) through a notification S.R.O. 557 (I)/2021 on Monday.

As per the notification, the sales tax on Kerosene oil has been reduced from 17 percent to 15.44 percent on Kerosene oil and from 17 percent to 7.56 percent on Light diesel oil.

The notification said that the standard rate of 17 percent will remain the same for Motor spirit and High-speed diesel oil for this month.

Earlier, the federal government had announced to keep the petroleum prices unchanged for the first half of May. Reports suggest that the prices will remain the same for the second half of the month as well.

The government slashed the petroleum levy on petrol to Rs. 6.39 per litre from Rs. 11.23 per litre. The GST on petrol, however, remained unchanged at Rs.15.77 per litre notified for the second quarter of April.

The government took a downward revision of PL on Kerosene Oil for the first half of May. The rate of PL on SKO reduced to zero from Rs.3.51 per litre and GST was also reduced to Rs10.70 per litre from Rs.11.62 per litre.