The provincial governments have agreed to defer the imposition of double sales tax till June 30 to end up the strike announced by the Oil Tankers Contractors Association (OTCA). The OTCA announced to end the strike on Tuesday after its successful negotiations with the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources, according to OTCA Chairman Raja Saeed.

The Oil Tanker Contractors Association was earlier on a strike against the service sales tax. The government assured the association that recovery of the tax has been postponed until June 30. Talking to media persons after the meeting of National Assembly Standing Committee on Petroleum and Natural Resources, Shahid Khaqan Abasi said that the imposition of ''double taxation'' on services is a provincial matter. He said imposition of double general sales tax on inter-city transportation on POL products is a matter between two provinces.

He suggested that provincial government should evolve a strategy to resolve the taxation issue permanently. Abbasi assured that there is no fuel crisis in the country. He revealed that 21 days storage of fuel is available. In his separate statement, Director General Oil Abdul Jabbar Memon said that stock of 280,000 tons petrol is in storage which can meet the demand of whole country for 17 days.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2017