Govt collects Rs679 billion PDL during last three years

ISLAMABAD – The federal government has collected around Rs679 billion on account of the Petroleum Development Levy (PDL) during the last three years to meet the country’s budgetary revenue targets. The petroleum levy collection stood at Rs179 billion in the fiscal year 2017-18, Rs206 billion in 2018-19 and Rs 294 billion in 2019-20, according to an official document available with APP.

“Collection of Petroleum Levy being part of Federal Consolidated Fund, in terms of Article 78(1) of the constitution of Pakistan, is utilized to meet federal government’s budgetary requirements,” it said. Meanwhile, a senior official told that the government was working on a prudent strategy to achieve self-reliance in the oil refining sector by upgrading the existing facilities and establishing new deep conversion refineries in different parts of the country.

“The country’s oil refining capacity stood at 417,400 BPD in the last fiscal year, while six more projects, investment initiatives and proposals are at different stages of implementation to increase the capacity by 1.1 million Barrels per Day (BPD),” he said. Currently, Pak Arab Refinery Limited (PARCO) is operating with 100,000 BPD oil refining capacity, Attock Refinery Limited (ARL) 53,400 BPD, Byco Petroleum Pakistan Limited (Byco) 150,000 BPD, National Refinery Limited (NRL) 64,000 BPD and Pakistan Refinery Limited 50,000 BPD.

As per the data, Pakistan’s total consumption of petroleum products stood at 19.68 Million Tons (MTs) during the fiscal year 2019-20, out of which 11.59 MTs was achieved through local refineries and 8.09 MT through import. The petrol consumption in the country was 7.6 MTs per annum, out of which 30 percent was being catered from local refineries and rest was being imported to meet the national demand. Similarly, the consumption of diesel was around 7.3 MTs/annum. The local production can meet 65 percent of the total demand, while rest is being imported.

Under the new initiatives, an oil refinery and petrochemical complex of 300,000 BPD oil capacity would be set up at Gawadar, Balochistan; PARCO would install 250,000 BPD Coastal Refinery at Hub, Balochistan; SINO Infrastructure Hong Kong Oriental Times Corporation Ltd (SIOT) will establish 250,000 BPD Gwadar Refining & Industrial Park, Upcountry Deep Conversion Refinery and Crude Pipeline of 250,000-300,000 BPD oil would be set up in collaboration with Pakistan State Oil and Power China International Group. While Falcon Oil Private Limited would set up 40,000 BPD oil refining facility at Dera Ismail Khan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Khyber Refinery Limited would be established in Kohat having capacity to purify 20,000 BPD oil.