Minister for Planning and Development, Asad Umar, says commodity and energy prices are much less in Pakistan compared to the regional countries.
Addressing a news conference in Islamabad on Monday, he said this would be achieved by reducing taxes on edible oil. Sales tax on edible oil would be cut from seventeen percent to 8.50 percent, customs duty per ton to be halved, and additional customs duty will be abolished.
Asad Umar said a program had been prepared to extend targeted subsidies on essential commodities to the marginalized segments of society. He said Prime Minister Imran Khan would share details of this program in the next few days, whilst the benefit of this program will start reaching the people by the end of next month.
The Minister for Planning said the government has also substantially reduced taxes on petroleum products to pass on the minimum impact of their increase in the world market.
He pointed out that crude oil prices witnessed an increase of 81.55 percent over the last twelve months in the global market, whilst in Pakistan, the prices were only enhanced by 17.55 percent.
The government has given relief on petroleum prices, but now it has become difficult to sustain any subsidies. He said that, in one year, the price of LNG has increased by 135 percent, the global price of sugar has increased by 53 percent, in Pakistan, it has increased by 15 percent. We are targeting sugar price at Rs. 90 per kg. The global price of urea has gone up by 67 percent, and in Pakistan, urea prices increased by 28 percent.
On petrol, he said, we have reduced GST from seventeen percent to 6.8 percent and the Petroleum Development Levy from thirty rupees to 5.62 rupees per liter.
Asad Umar said the sales tax on diesel had been reduced from seventeen percent to 10.03 percent and the petroleum development levy from thirty rupees to 5.14 rupees per liter.
Asad Umar said that food and energy sources in the world have become extremely expensive, but still the difference between flour, edible oil, onion, peanut pulse, tomato, sugar, and eggs in Pakistan is very cheap from the neighboring countries.
Source: Pro Pakistani