Govt to cushion impact by oil price hike

The Government has provided relief to the tune of Rs. 14,832 million in respect of essential food items, to cushion off the impact caused by fuel price hikes and use of grain for manufacture of bio-fuel, the Government Information Department said. The relief has been effected after the withdrawal of VAT and import duties on sugar, dhall and Milk foods.

Meanwhile, the Act No. 48 of 2004 was introduced to enable to control escalating prices of essential food items. The Government has lost Rs. 6129 million as its revenue in view of this duty free concession given to the public servants to import vehicles.

Already 2883 vehicles have been imported to the country under the duty free scheme. The resulting loss from withdrawal of duties on essential food items concession on import of duty free vehicles caused the reduction of trade revenue to 15.8% in 2007 from 16.3% in the previous year.