President of Multan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) Mian Iqbal Hassan has demanded of the government to reduce sales tax to 17 percent from prevailing 27 percent on petroleum products in order to provide relief to consumers. Welcoming the decision of the Federal Minister for Finance for retaining the POL prices for the month of March, he said that retaining petroleum prices for March 2015 was a wise decision of the government because prices of POL are still intact in international market.
He said that increase in POL prices would be harmful to country's economy. He further said that OGRA had recommended revising prices upward by 5 to 7 percent for March but government turned down its advice. He said the people of Pakistan were not given price cushion as per the falling oil prices in the international market which dropped to over $50 per barrel from almost $110 per barrel in a period of six months.
He said that OGRA had never tried to give relief to consumers and only suggested the rulers to revise POL prices upward ignoring the facts and international market trends. He said the government should act as per the price fluctuation internationally. He hoped that Finance Minister Ishaq Dar would fulfil his commitment regarding reduction in GST on POL products.