LAHORE: Jamaat-e-Islami Deputy Chief Liaqat Baloch has said that while the price of petrol may move up or down because of the situation at the Strait of Hormuz, the levy tax has no connection with that issue.
Addressing a press conference at Faisal Chowk alongside other party leaders, Liaqat Baloch said Jamaat-e-Islami’s sit-in for a reduction in petroleum product prices and the abolition of the petroleum levy was continuing, with the public and the trader community participating in strength.
Liaqat Baloch said petroleum product prices were being raised under a deliberate plan, and that severe load-shedding and rising inflation had pushed the public into acute difficulty. The prices of petrol, diesel, electricity, flour, ghee and other essential commodities were increasing daily, he said.
He said the government did not appreciate the extent of the public’s difficulties. Expensive petrol, expensive diesel, expensive gas and expensive flour had become a major problem, while continuous increases in utility bills had badly affected citizens.
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The Deputy Chief said traders and ordinary citizens had supported Jamaat-e-Islami against the petroleum levy. Organised and peaceful protest was important for politics, democracy and public struggle, he said, adding that the party’s protest was aimed at delivering direct relief to the public.
Liaqat Baloch said a petrol bomb had been dropped on the public in the darkness of night, with a staggering increase in petrol and diesel prices. The rulers, he said, had no work other than oppressing the public, and the unjustified levy imposed on petroleum products should be withdrawn immediately.
The situation at the Strait of Hormuz could cause fluctuation in the price of petrol, he said, but the petroleum levy had no relationship with that matter.
According to Liaqat Baloch, the government is collecting roughly Rs130 to Rs148 in additional revenue per litre of petroleum products in the form of levy tax. This, he said, was not only making petrol more expensive but was severely affecting domestic industry and the ordinary citizen, with filling a motorcycle’s tank having become difficult for the middle class.
Liaqat Baloch said Federal Minister Ahsan Iqbal and, on behalf of the Punjab government, Salman Rafique had made contact with Jamaat-e-Islami, and that the party had been invited to Islamabad for talks over the petroleum levy tax.
Protest would continue, he said, in support of the demand for a reduction in petroleum product prices and the abolition of the unjustified levy until relief reached the public.
The Petroleum Development Levy is a per-litre charge applied on top of the ex-refinery price and is a significant contributor to federal non-tax revenue. Because it is levied as a fixed rupee amount rather than a percentage, its share of the pump price rises when international crude prices fall — which is the mechanism at the centre of Jamaat-e-Islami’s argument.
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