FBR opposes incentives to oil refineries in budget

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) on Friday strongly opposed giving 10 percent protection to the oil refineries of Pakistan in budget 2021-22.

In Finance Bill 2021-22, there is a proposal to imp0ose a 10 percent duty on petrol and high-speed diesel for an additional five years to enable the country’s refineries to manufacture Euro-IV.

Senator Talha Mahmood chaired the Senate Standing Committee on Finance that met to consider finance bill 2021-22.

FBR and Petroleum division are face to face as the former has opposed new concession package whereas the latter has backed to give a package to oil refineries of Pakistan to establish up-gradation plants.

During the meeting, Member Custom Policy FBR raised issue of incentives government had given to oil refineries in Pakistan fifteen years back.

He said that refineries had miserably failed to implement the previous policy despite availing the incentives fifteen years back to upgrade the products.

Now, the government was going to impose of 10% deemed duty on petrol and high-speed diesel for another five years to install new technology in refineries.

In a meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance chaired by Senator Talha Mahmood, a representative of the Ministry of Petroleum requested the committee to further improve the tax concessions package for refineries. The Member Customs Policy informed the Committee that the government had granted the same to the refineries in Pakistan fifteen years ago to equip them with the latest missionary and to enable them to manufacture environmentally friendly petroleum products.

We have accumulated billions of rupees and provided it to the refineries, he said adding that instead of transferring this money to the refineries for modern technology, they had consumed billions of rupees.

Not a single refinery has imported modern technology in the country, he said. He added that there was a 30-year-old refinery in and none of the refineries could upgrade now. Once again using their influence, the owners of these refineries had recently demanded 10% on petrol and high-speed diesel.

No one has asked for an account of the deemed duty collected in the last 15 years and now the nation is being forced to pay more for petroleum products to upgrade these refineries for another five years, he said The committee sought a detailed report on the matter from the Ministry of Petroleum.