Govt may initiate legal battle against Sindh

Aftab Ahmed

Islamabad: Federal Government is likely to initiate a legal battle against Sindh regarding general sales tax (GST) on cess collected on LNG.

Sources told Newztodays.com that the Cabinet had directed the Ministry of Maritime Affairs to examine the case regarding the Imposition of GST on CDC by the Government of Sindh.

Ministry of Maritime Affairs examines the case to challenge the collection of general sales tax by the Sindh government on Development Cess, Port Qasim Authority (PQA) is collecting on LNG.

After examining the case, the federal government will challenge it in a Court of Law.

However, Maritime Affairs will present to the cabinet committee on transportation and logistics the status of the case regarding the imposition of Sindh Infrastructure Cess on the import of Petroleum Products.

The Cabinet had formed a committee to rationalize Transport Charges at Port Qasim-Computation of RLNG Prices.

It formed a Committee under the chairmanship of the Secretary, Finance Division comprising of Secretaries of Petroleum, Maritime Affairs, Chairman OGRA, and Chairman. PQA to deliberate on the issue of Reduction of RING price.

The sub-body had formed a cabinet that was working with the petroleum division on the subject of Un-Accounted For Gas (UFG).

It is also looking into custom duty Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) charging on hydrocarbons.

At present, Pakistan State Oil (PSO) and Pakistan LNG Limited (PLL) are charging higher margins on LNG. Petroleum Division is working on PSO and PLL margins.

Port Qasim /KPT is also charging on how hydrocarbon. The oil refineries have been collecting deemed duty on petroleum products since 2002.

They have collected multibillion rupees to set up up-gradation plants. Now, the Committee is probing this issue.

Cabinet had directed the Petroleum Division and Ministry of Maritime Affairs to Initiate work immediately on the development of draft Single Point Mooring (SPM) Policy in consultation with all stakeholders.

OGRA will submit a report to the CCoTL to see if the waiver of Channel Development Cess(CDC) has been passed on to the end consumers or otherwise.

Furthermore, the Prime Minister expressed concern over submitting a report after considerable delay against the directions of the Cabinet to do so in a week.

On the observation that there was nothing tangible in the report, meanwhile, the Minister for Maritime Affairs explained that the Committee was still collecting relevant data from the concerned Ministries, which was essential for resolving primary issues.

Lastly, the Cabinet took note of the Report of CCoTL presented by the Minister for Maritime Affairs/Chairman CCoTL. It directed to take initiatives to make a transport and logistics sector globally competitive, with concrete, specific and time-bound proposals to be presented to the Cabinet within two weeks.