Only 17 percent tax is being levied on petroleum products: Omar Ayub

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Power, Petroleum and Natural Resources Omar Ayub has informed the Senate that the federal government is collecting tax at Rs 47.86 per litre on petrol and Rs51.41 per litre on diesel.

He said that Prime Minister Imran Khan was actually providing relief to the people of the country as the price of oil in the region is currently the lowest in Pakistan. Only 17% tax is being levied on petroleum products, he added.

Speaking in the National Assembly today (Friday), the Power Minister defended the hike in the price of petroleum products, saying that the federal government has increased the fuel prices due to the rising oil prices in the international market.

The federal minister further said in terms of supply, tax is being collected at Rs 9.70 per litre, Rs47.86 per litre on petrol and Rs51.41 per litre on diesel.

Responding to another question during the National Assembly session, he said that Kekra-1 was started as a joint venture by ExxonMobil, OGDCL and PPL.

He said more than Rs122 million was spent on digging the well, adding that the government did not spend any money on this project, Ayub added. He said, “The well was dug at 5,693 meters however the search was not successful.”

“The quarry of this well revealed that there is no oil and gas pressure, rather there is a reservoir of water”, he said. He also pointed out that the price of petroleum products was higher in Bangladesh, India and other countries of the region.

Commenting on the power sector, Omar Ayub claimed that load-shedding has been eliminated and currently. “The Ministry is focusing on bringing improvement in the distribution and transmission system,” he added.

Earlier, the government had increased the price of petrol by Rs25.58 per litre to Rs100.10 per litre, while the price of high-speed diesel was increased by Rs21.31 per litre to Rs101.46 per litre.