KARACHI: Trade and industry on Monday rejected the hike in petroleum products prices and demanded that the government should resort to cutting taxes and other levies on POL imports and sales.

Business leaders were highly critical of the government’s decision of pushing up POL prices to a four year high level in 15 days, stressing that will have a crippling effect on the entire economy.

Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) Vice President Tariq Haleem said it would have been in the best interest of the economy if the government had kept POL prices at June 20, 2018 level and instead slashed various taxes collected at import stage.

Presently the government collects 31 per cent sales tax on high speed diesel (HSD) and 17pc sales tax on other POL pr The caretaker government is resorting to an easy way to generate more revenue to meet its cash short falls, a critical Mr Haleem said.

He proposed that the government should evolve some proper mechanism and concrete economic policies to increase revenue collection and stabilise the economy on sound footing.

Short-term, ad hoc decisions like increasing POL prices for generating revenue are not only going to cripple trade and industry but will also further weaken the economy which is already in poor shape, he stressed.

Mr Haleem went on to say that high POL prices would further encourage its smuggling as around 15 to 20pc petrol consumed in Pakistan is smuggled from neighboring countries resulting not only in revenue loss to government but exposing consumers to adulterated fuel.

Condemning the steep price hike, President Lasbela Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) Yakoob Karim said the move goes against the interest of trade and industry.

The caretaker government should realise that the economy was already in a poor shape as all economic indicators were showing a gloomy picture, he said, maintaining that the recent increase in POL prices would multiply the cost of doing business and cripple export oriented industries.

He appealed to Chief Justice of Pakistan Saqib Nisar to immediately take notice of the high handedness of Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) for such anti-national and anti-economy measures.

Published in Dawn, July 3rd, 2018