Petroleum Development Levy challenged in Lahore High Court

LAHORE: The recovery of Rs 180 billion rupees petroleum development levy has been challenged in the Lahore High Court on Saturday.

It has been pleaded in a petition that the government has recovered 1,234 billion rupees petroleum levy from July to mid-April. “The government has failed to provide relief to general public despite drop in petroleum prices”.

“The fluctuations in prices of petroleum products have badly affected the workers and the salaried class,” according to the petition.

The petitioner has requested to the high court to declare the levy “an unconstitutional economic exploitation”.

“The court should declare the policy that prevents transfer of the benefit of declining prices in the international markets to consumers,” petitioner requested to the court.

It is to be mentioned here that the federal government has collected more than Rs180 billion from the public under the Petroleum Development Levy (PDL) over the past one and a half months.

The Ministry of Finance sources said that the collection of the levy on petroleum products in Pakistan has increased extraordinarily.

They said that during the recent escalation and conflict between the United States and Iran, the government collected over Rs180 billion in the PDL from consumers within approximately six weeks.

Data shows that from July of the current fiscal year to mid-April, a total of Rs1,234 billion has been collected under the petroleum levy. This represents an increase of around Rs400 billion compared to the same period last fiscal year.