More than a dozen oil marketing companies (OMCs) recorded a surge in profit from the tax-free import of petrol from China in the last two years under the China-Pakistan Free Trade Agreement (CPFTA).Advertisement
According to the documents available with ProPakistani, 15 OMCs availed the duty-free oil import facility under the CPFTA from 1 January 2020 to 1 January 2022. They imported more than 2.4 billion liters of petrol from China and made over Rs. 20 billion. They only paid Rs. 1.447 billion in additional customs duty (ACD) which is just 0.25-0.5% of the overall import volume
Speaking in this regard, an oil industry expert said that unlike on import of petroleum products from the rest of the world, OMCs are not required to pay the 10% customs duty on imports under the CPFTA.
Although OMCs have made huge gains, they did not break any law by importing tax-free petrol from China. The government is responsible for failing to transfer the complete benefit of cheaper duty-free import of petrol from China to the public.
The Amount of Fuel OMCs Imported From China
A breakdown of the official data shows that Shell Pakistan imported 1.165 billion liters of duty-free petrol and paid just Rs. 1.08 billion as ACD. Gas & Oil Pakistan imported 474 million liters of duty-free petrol and paid just Rs. 153 million as ACD.
Total-Parco and Attock Petroleum Limited imported 288 million liters and 157 million liters of duty-free petrol respectively. They did not pay any ACD on the oil imports in the past two years.Advertisement
BE Energy imported 131 million liters of duty-free petrol and paid Rs. 108 million as ACD. Hascol Petroleum imported 98 million liters of duty-free petrol from China and paid Rs. 40 million as ACD.ALSO READToyota Warns of 4-Year Delivery Time for Land Cruiser
Pakistan State Oil (PSO), which is a state-owned petroleum corporation, imported 68 million liters of duty-free petrol and paid Rs. 64 million as ACD.
Zoom Marketing, Zoom Petroleum, and Taj Gasoline imported 9.5 million liters, 6.9 million liters, and 8.1 million liters of duty-free import petrol. They did not pay any ACD.
Besides, Puma Energy, Oil Industries Pakistan, Vital Petroleum, Jinn Petroleum, and Al-Noor Petroleum also imported millions of liters of duty-free petrol from China and paid no ACD at all.
