Petrol prices to drop in coming days: Finance Ministry spokesperson

• Govt has increased price of petrol by Rs4 to meet IMF's targets.
• IMF asked govt to impose taxes worth Rs700bn, Finance Ministry spox says.
• Muzzammil Aslam says "unnecessary" tax exemptions will soon be lifted.

KARACHI: Finance Ministry spokesperson Muzzammil Aslam said Saturday the price of petroleum products in the country would decline in the coming days.

On the eve of the New Year, the federal government hiked the price of petrol by Rs4 per litre to meet the petrol levy targets of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The spokesperson, addressing a press conference, also defended the government's decision to impose further taxes worth over Rs300 billion — through the Finance Bill 2021 —and said the international money lender had demanded more.

"The IMF had [asked the government] to impose taxes worth Rs700 billion, but we introduced taxes of only Rs350 billion," Aslam said.

The spokesperson said inflation was a global phenomenon and a similar situation was witnessed in 2008 — a year of severe worldwide economic crisis.

He also noted that it was important to review the rates of inflation over the last six months, but stated that several financial sectors performed well during the previous year.

The spokesperson added that the Finance Bill 2021 was not the "mini-budget", as the Opposition had dubbed it. "We are also putting an end to the unnecessary tax exemptions awarded by the previous governments."

After unveiling the supplementary finance bill on Thursday, Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Shaukat Tarin had termed the Opposition's criticism of imposing additional burden on the people and of a consequent rise in inflation as “baseless".

Addressing a joint press conference, flanked by Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib, Tarin said that tax revision worth Rs343 billion has been revised in the bill.

Sharing details of the supplementary finance bill, which was unveiled by the minister in the National Assembly before the press conference, he said that Rs70 billion rebate included taxes on luxury and business items including imported fish, high-end bakery items, expensive cheese, and imported bicycles.

Tax exemptions worth Rs2 billion will be removed from items of general use like personal computers, sewing machines, matchboxes, iodised salt, red chillies, and contraceptives.