Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD: The government has decided to increase the rate of the Petroleum Development Levy (PDL) during the upcoming two months which will result in the price of diesel going up by an additional Rs10 per litre.
The decision has been taken to meet a shortfall in revenue, local media reported on Wednesday. It said as the government had set a collection target of Rs855 billion on account of PDL, its projected collection only amounted to Rs680 billion. Therefore, in order to bridge this gap of Rs175 billion, the government has decided to increase the rate of PDL by Rs 5 per litre on diesel from March 1 and again Rs 5 per litre from April 1, 2023.
Levy on diesel
At present, the government is charging a Rs 50 levy per litre on petrol and High-octane Blending Component (HOBC) while the levy on diesel is Rs 40 per litre which will now also be jacked to Rs 50 per litre during the next two months, the media said, quoting the sources. Diesel which is widely used in the agriculture and transport sectors, has a monthly consumption of over 500,000 metric tonnes in the country.
The additional taxes would place the inflationary burden on the common man but the government has no otherwise choice as it is striving to return to the IMF programme. Other global lenders, including the friendly countries, had also linked their financing to the successful resumption of the IMF programme. The government believes that after years of mismanagement and neglect, the country’s economy was in dire need of painful policy decisions that could steer it out of this economic crisis cycle.
