Former finance minister Ishaq Dar on Monday challenged the federal government’s claims about presenting a tax-free budget for the fiscal year 2020-21.

Dar took to Twitter to share his point of view that the government had plans to collect Rs450 billion in the name of petroleum levy in the fiscal year 2020-21 compared to Rs260 billion petroleum levy, which was collected in the fiscal year 2019-20.

This means, he said, the government has increased the petroleum levy by 73 percent compared to the last year. He said the last government of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) collected Rs179 billion petroleum levy in 2018, which was 151 percent less than the petroleum levy being collected by the incumbent government led by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

Dar wrote: “Govt’s claim of tax-free budget is a lie as it has planned Petroleum Levy(PL)of Rs450B in FY21 against Rs260B in FY20,an increase of 73%.PMLN levied Rs179B PL in FY18;151% less than PTI.Will IK apologise for political hue&cry of past in the name of oppressive taxation through PL?”

https://twitter.com/MIshaqDar50/status/1277495623344889856