Pakistan has levied a 10% regulatory charge on petroleum products imported from China.
Under the guise of the China-Pakistan Free Trade Agreement, duty-free imports increased by 673 percent to PKR 250 billion this year, resulting in a revenue loss of PKR 25 billion (CPFTA).
The decision was made at a meeting of the Cabinet's Economic Coordination Committee (ECC), which approved supplementary funding totaling about PKR 147 billion, including PKR 81 billion for defense services to spend before June 30.
According to Pakistan's import policy, petroleum products are subject to a 10% customs duty on imports and a 10% presumed duty on local production of these goods by domestic refineries.
However, the CPFTA, signed in 2019, exempts hundreds of items from tariffs in bilateral trade, including petroleum products.
It should be mentioned that the Pakistani government has raised petroleum rates.
According to an International news agency report, the new petrol price after the current raise will be Rs 179.86 per litre, high-speed diesel will cost Rs 174.15 per litre, and kerosene oil will cost Rs 155.56 per litre, and light diesel will cost Rs 148.31 per litre.
The government's decision to hike fuel prices will remove a key roadblock to reaching an agreement with the International Monetary Fund at the staff level (IMF). The price increase came after talks in Doha between the Pakistani government and the International Monetary Fund.
These talks aimed at obtaining a policy agreement at the end of the IMF's seventh assessment of Pakistan's USD 6 billion programs, which has been stuck since early April.
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