Pakistan | China Petroleum Pakistan initiates probe into misuse of petroleum imports from China
Islamabad: The Pakistani government on Friday directed all oil marketing companies (OMCs) to provide evidence-based data on the import of petrol from China amid reports of misuse of China-Pakistan Free Trade Agreement (CPFTA), media reports said.
Under the CPFTA renegotiated in 2019, the government had issued statutory regulatory orders on Dec 31, 2019 that abolished tariffs on import of petrol, reports The Dawn.
As such, there was no customs duty on the import of petrol from China with effect from Jan 1, 2020, the Pakistani newspaper reported.
Normal petroleum imports from all other sources, mostly the Middle East, attract 10pc customs duty while similar deemed duty is applicable on production from local refineries, reports The Dawn.
This results in a price saving of about 10pc on petrol imports from China. However, this price differential is retained by the OMCs as windfall profit instead of its benefit to the exchequer or the consumers.
Depending on the international petrol price published in Platt’s Oilgram, the gap normally works out between Rs 9-12 per litre, the newspaper reported.
“It has been observed that a number of OMCs have imported motor spirit [petrol] from China under the CPFTA,” said the Ministry of Energy in a letter to Oil Companies Advisory Council (OCAC), an umbrella association of about two dozen refineries and oil companies as quoted by The Dawn newspaper.
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