LAHORE: The provincial revenue authorities of three provinces, including Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, have decided to impose uniform tax rate on goods transported by oil tankers.
However, the oil tankers’ owners have threatened to observe strikes and suspending the oil supplies across the country if any tax was levied on them.
The decision was made in a meeting held at the Punjab Revenue Authority (PRA) headquarters. PRA Chairperson Dr Raheal Siddiqi and officials, SRB Tax Policy Adviser Syed Mushtaq Kazimi and KPRA Director General Yusuf Afridi represented their revenue authorities, respectively in the meeting. Balochistan Revenue Authority (BRA) was unable to attend the meeting due to some official reason. However, officials said the BRA would also endorse the principal decision which was also crucial for them for revenue generation.
However, the meeting failed to finalise the formula on the basis of which tax would be collected and shared among the provinces in accordance to their share as the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources failed to provide the required data asked by the provincial revenue bodies for evaluation of formula. It was agreed to hold another meeting on Oct 10 to chalk out a collection mechanism of tax.
Currently PRA, SRB and KPRA had separate rates of 16 per cent, 13pc, and 15pc respectively. However, the oil tanker owners were not paying the tax.
