ISLAMABAD: With increasing tax rates, the country’s oil and gas sector has emerged as the single largest revenue spinner with more than Rs912 billion contribution to the national exchequer during the fiscal year ended on June 30, 2016 despite tepid international prices.

Official documents of the Ministry of Finance and the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) suggest that more than Rs330bn were netted during 2015-16 through non-tax and other taxes while indirect taxes contributed over Rs582bn the same year. This does not include provincial tax collections through oil and gas.

The finance ministry said the total collection of petroleum levy stood at Rs149.3bn in 2015-16 against Rs131bn of the same period a year before, showing a growth of about 14pc. The collection was also 11pc greater than the government target of Rs135bn in 2015-16.

Another Rs80bn was collected as Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC) that was significantly higher than previous year’s collection of Rs57bn. The collection was, however, radically short of Rs145bn target because of delayed settlement of court cases.

An amount of Rs33bn came to the kitty as natural gas development surcharge which was higher than Rs30bn target and actual collection of Rs25.8bn during 2014-15. Another major contribution of Rs58bn came from royalty on crude oil and natural gas while Rs9bn were collected on account of discount retained on local crude production.

Apart from these taxes, the FBR said it had collected over Rs582bn from oil and gas as indirect taxes.

This included Rs279bn on account of general sales tax on domestic sales of petroleum products as the government kept charged highest ever rates to take benefit of declining international prices. This was around 11pc higher than Rs242bn collection of 2014-15. “The POL [petrol, oil and lubricants] is the top most contributor (of sales tax) with 42.1pc share in sales tax domestic collection,” said the FBR.

Another significant collection of Rs219bn was achieved through general sales tax at import stage. This was around 32pc higher than Rs166bn collection from the same head during 2014-15 despite 28pc decline in the import of POL products.

Moreover, the imports of petroleum gases increased excessively by 245pc resulting in 255pc growth in sales tax, the amounts were nevertheless not significant.

Likewise, the POL products are the second major contributor of customs duty. The collection of Rs38bn customs duty from POL exhibited a massive growth of 55.6pc during 2015-16. This growth is mainly driven by around 171.9pc growth in the dutiable imports and bringing items like motor spirit and crude oil from zero to 2pc and 5pc for furnace oil during 2015-16.

Also, general sales tax on domestic gas was reported at Rs18bn while another Rs37bn GST, mostly originating from fuel, was raised from electricity.

Early this month, the government increased GST on high-speed diesel by 25pc to 35pc (instead of 28pc) while GST on motor spirit was raised to 12pc from 8.5pc. Likewise, GST on light diesel and high-octane blending component was also increased to 20pc and 21pc, respectively, from 17pc a month ago.

Published in Dawn September 22nd, 2016