KARACHI, March 19: The local chapter of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal has expressed concern over increasing prices of petroleum products which have been adding to miseries of people.

Terming the increase without any logic and principle, the MMA’s Karachi President Hafiz Mohammad Taqi and its other office-bearers said that the petroleum was being purchased at the rate of Rs7.5 per litre and was being sold at the rate of Rs37.20 per litre, which, they said indicated levying of over 60 per cent forced taxes to meet, what they they called the luxurious expenses of the government.

They said that the impact of petroleum prices did not confine to increased expenditure of transport but it affected the entire economy resulting in an increased cost of production, depriving Pakistan of foreign markets.

“The country is already in the grip of unemployment, price- hike and other economic hardships, which have made life of common man miserable and now under the cover of Iraq crisis, further increase in the petroleum prices is tantamount to depriving people of their right to live”, they pointed out and demanded that the taxes be reduced from over 60 per cent to 30 per cent by curtailing the government expenditures.

They also asked the government to take people into confidence regarding an offer by the oil tankers’s owners to supply oil at the rate of Rs 15 per litre if allowed to purchase oil from Iran.