ISLAMABAD – Under International Monetary Fund pressure, Federal governmentlikely to increase petroleum prices.
To make up for the revenue shortfall, the International Monetary Fund (IMF)and the government of Pakistan are considering an increase in petrol prices.
IMF’s review team is in Pakistan these days to observe the government’scompliance with the conditions of the $6 billion bailout package beforedisbursing the next tranche.
For the FY 2019-20, IMF gave the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) a revenuetarget of Rs. 5.550 trillion. However, the FBR requested the IMF to revisethe revenue target to Rs. 5.238 trillion.
The board has collected Rs. 2.41 trillion in the first seven months of thecurrent fiscal year. In FY 2018-19, the FBR had collected Rs. 3.828trillion.
To reach the target of Rs. 5.238 trillion, FBR needs to collect Rs. 567.6billion in the next five months. During January 2020, FBR collected Rs. 320billion.
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Therefore, the only viable option available to all stakeholders is to jackup the levy on all petroleum products.
Earlier, the federal government rejected OGRA’s proposallinkforincreasing oil prices for February and maintained January’s prices.
Although the international oil prices have declined 15% in recent weeks,the government needs to raise the price of the commodity just to meet therevenue target.
