PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Finance Advisor Muzammil Aslam has strongly criticized the federal government’s recent increase in petroleum levy and the ongoing crisis in the energy sector, saying that the government is shifting the burden of its administrative failures and past mistakes onto the poor people.
In a statement, Muzammil Aslam revealed that due to the decline in oil prices in the global market, the public was expected to get at least Rs 5 relief per litre in the price of petrol, but the federal government increased the petroleum levy limit from Rs 80 to Rs 85, which itself ended the opportunity for relief. He reminded that during the PTI government, the petroleum levy never exceeded Rs 20, while the current government has taken it to a record level.
Muzammil Aslam, while revealing shocking facts regarding the circular debt of gas, said that the government is silently trying to reduce the circular debt of gas through the petroleum levy. He said that only 27 percent of the country’s population has access to gas through pipelines, but unfortunately, the burden of its debt has been placed on 100 percent of the country’s people in the form of a levy on the price of petrol.
Criticizing the LNG deals, he said that the real reason for the circular debt of gas is the expensive LNG deals signed by the PML-N in 2015. Now the government is trying to suspend 45 ships from Qatar and ENI by 2027 to get rid of these deals. As a result of this suspension, the public will have to pay an additional tax on petrol to cover the huge financial loss and fines that will have to be paid in the global market.
The Finance Advisor further said that the government took a loan of Rs 1250 billion to reduce the circular debt of electricity and also put its burden on the people in the form of a surcharge of Rs 3.25 per unit. He warned that if the tax targets are not met, preparations are being made to impose more taxes on fertilizers, pesticides, and sweets, which will bring a new storm of inflation. He questioned the economic vision of the federal government and said that what kind of vision is this of the PML-N, in which, instead of relief, only the burden of taxes is becoming the destiny of the people.
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