Amraiz Khan Lahore
The government is likely to make legislation to increase Petrol Development Levy (PDL) in the next budget. It is worth mentioning here that International Monetary Fund has demanded the Pakistan government to increase Petroleum Development Levy by Rs. 20 per liter on petroleum products but it is to recall that the Pakistan government is already receiving Rs. 50 in this regard.
The IMF authorities want to increase PDL by Rs. 20 per liter to achieve the revenue target of Rs. 800 billion.
It merits mentioning here that the Pakistan government had fixed its target of Rs. 855 billion during the fiscal year of 2022-2023 but it could not be achieved over the fiscal year. Now IMF is putting conditions that in order to achieve the target of the PDL, its levy ratio should be increased.
In the next fiscal budget of 2023-24 the budget deficit could be around Rs. 6.5 billion which would be more than 7 percent of GDP. Sources are of the view that by increasing the levy on petroleum products PDL total ratio could touch Rs. 60 or 70 per liter and by doing so the government would try to decrease the budget deficit of 2023-24.
