The federal governmentincreasedthe price of petroleum products after many days the supply chain remained disrupted. The disruption was caused by a strong mafia in the country who refused to abide by the price reduction that federal government announced in the wake of global pandemic and subsequent fall in the demand and consumption of oil worldwide owing to lockdowns in major economies of the world.
Prices of oil hence fell worldwide and government decided to shift thetrickledown effect of this relief to the masses. However, the mafias involved in the business seemed unmoved.
Oil was nowhere to be found apart from
Finally, the prices of oil were increased to an unprecedented extent. The hike made overnight without following proper channel is between 27 to 66 percent depending on the product.
There was no summary moved from
47 perlitretaxes on petrol and high speed diesel. Moreover, the General Sales Tax on the petroleum products was already increased to a standard rate of 17 percent across the board with a view to generate additional revenue.
It may be mentioned here the GST on petroleum products until January was as follows: 0.5 percent on light diesel, 2pc onkerosene, 8 percent on petrol and 13 percent on high speed diesel.
The increase of taxes on oil product has double negative impact on the masses. On the one hand, it empties their pockets and overburdens theirfragile source of incomeon the other hand it increases the prices of other products which are dependent on petroleum combustion vehicles for transportation.
The end result is high inflation and low purchasingcap city.The global pandemic Covid-19 has alreadycrippledeconomy and has caused millions of job losses across the country.
Many industries have refused to pay salaries to their employees while others have fired the contract employees, citing the Covid-19 and its impacts over the size of their income and ability to maintain the workforce. With all these natural and made induced hardships for the people in
The promise of change, it seems, has lost its effectiveness as it is actions not the words that matter in the practical statesmanship. The ability of a leader is to make a decision and have it implemented across the board,no matter what.
Bowing down before strong mafias means the leadership is not strong enough to resist the pressure from those quarters. Explanations on television willdono good and a single step can add to the unpopularity of government beyond imagination.
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© Pakistan Press International, source