KARACHI: To fill its coffers, Federal Board of Revenue levied a regulatory duty of Rs4,669 per ton on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) imports on Friday.
This will enable FBR to collect additional revenue to the tune of Rs1.5 billion for the remaining months of current financial year, reported a English daily.
This could raise the price of LPG in the local market as winter sets in and gas shortage being reported in several parts of the country will add to woes of the populace, which will have to pay a premium.
Earlier in a cabinet meeting of Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) held on November 28th, had given go-ahead to this above mentioned regulatory duty, which was implemented via SRO 1241 (I)/2017, issued by the FBR after amending SRO 1035(I)/2017 released on October 16, 2017.
Profit reported last month government had notified imposition of petroleum levy at the rate of Rs 4,669 per metric tonne on locally-produced LPG. As a result, Ministry of Energy had sought regulatory duty on imported LPG to be equal to petroleum levy on locally produced LPG to keep parity between the two.
The tax watchdog stated LPG was exempted from customs duty during financial year 2016-17. A total of 481,512 metric tons were imported during FY 2016-17 and from July-October 2017, over 190,680 tons were imported from abroad.
This follows an earlier threat by Liquefied Petroleum Gas Distributors Association of Pakistan (LPGDAP) to hold a shutter-down strike on December 9, 2017, in all parts of the country against various taxes on the import of LPG to the country, especially premium bonus, signature bonus, levy and regulatory duty.
