Pakistan Senate proposes lower fuel taxes, coal substitutions, energy development

A Pakistan Senate committee has recommended that the government implement all means possible to keep fuel oil prices down and stabilize future petroleum prices, including scaling down taxes levied on petroleum products, increasing the use of coal, and developing resources for the future.

June 3, 2004

KARACHI, June 3 -- Pakistan's Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Resources in the nation's Upper House, has recommended that the government implement all means possible to keep fuel oil prices down and stabilize future petroleum prices, including scaling down taxes levied on petroleum products.

The government already twice has disallowed oil price increases in the last two fortnightly revisions by the Oil Companies Advisory Committee, which fixes oil prices, said committee chairman Senator Dilawar Abbas Tuesday.

The committee also recommended that the government take immediate steps to purchase gas from Qatar, Iran, and Turkmenistan, to initiate gas development and expansion projects to avoid imminent gas shortages after 2010, and to increase the use of coal to replace gas in areas that may face shortages.

At present the country's petroleum production is 62,000 b/d, of which 29,000 bbl are being produced by Oil & Gas Development Corp.