Pakistan collected a record Rs1.567 trillion through the petroleum levy in the 2025-26 fiscal year, an increase of about 29 per cent on the Rs1.22 trillion collected the year before (Dawn; Dunya News).
The figure overshot both the original target of Rs1.468 trillion and the revised target of Rs1.498 trillion.
It is the fiscal centrepiece of the year. The deficit fell to 2.6 per cent of GDP — the lowest since FY03 — with a primary surplus of 2.9 per cent, also a record. Those are the numbers the government cites when it says stability has been achieved, and they are real.
They were substantially paid for at the pump. The levy is charged per litre, is collected at a handful of points, cannot be evaded by anyone who drives, and requires no cooperation from the Federal Board of Revenue’s assessment machinery. It is the most administratively efficient tax available to a state with a narrow direct-tax base — which is precisely why it has grown 29 per cent in a year.
The cost shows up in the weekly price index. Short-term inflation measured by the Sensitive Price Indicator rose 9.11 per cent year-on-year in the week ending August 13, and 0.15 per cent on the week (Dawn).
Within that basket, diesel is 34.05 per cent more expensive than a year ago, petrol 23.02 per cent and LPG 55.41 per cent. Food has moved further still: tomatoes are up 143.77 per cent, onions 125.75 per cent and wheat flour 77.41 per cent — increases that fuel costs feed into directly, since almost all of it moves by road.
That chain is now producing political friction at both ends. Goods transporters have been on a wheel-jam strike since August 8, demanding lower diesel taxes and an end to daily price revisions, with the government opening high-level talks as port operations come under strain. Jamaat-e-Islami blockaded highways nationwide on August 7 over the levy and has called sit-ins outside the Chief Minister House in Punjab and Governor Houses elsewhere. Petroleum dealers threatened their own shutdown last week and were accommodated within days with a Rs1.34 increase in their margin.
The levy on diesel was itself raised twice in two days last week, by Rs1.44 and Rs1.21, taking it to Rs73.47 a litre.
The record collection and the strikes are not two stories. They are the same policy, seen from the treasury and from the road.
