KARACHI: Some of the oil contractors were seen observing strike on Monday, but there was no disruption in supplies of oil products and shortage of any oil products in Karachi.

A number of oil tankers were seen parked at the Shireen Jinnah Colony.

“Karachi does not face any shortage of various fuels and supplies from oil marketing companies (OMCs) have been going normally,” Chairman of the Pakistan Petroleum Dealers Association Abdul Sami Khan said.

He said petrol pumps usually procured oil products from their tankers being operated by the OMCs, adding that pump owners usually maintained stocks for one or two days.

He said there were various groups of oil tankers and “I could not tell right now which group is observing the strike”.

An official of PSO said the company had ample stocks and there would be no disruption of supply chain. He added that PSO had nothing to do with the strike.

An official of Shell Pakistan Limited said there have been no supply issues so far, but the company was monitoring the situation.

As per media reports from Islamabad, the Oil Tankers Contractors Association has threatened to go on strike on Thursday due to failure of the Sindh and Punjab governments in devising sales tax on services distribution formula. However, it seems that the contractors started observing strike from Monday.

Sindh and Punjab have levied sales tax on transportation services, but they have failed to work out the distribution formula. While Punjab is demanding the tax to be recovered on the basis of the destination of the transport carriage, Sindh seeks to fix the point of origination as the base of tax collection.

Chairman of All Pakistan Oil Tankers Owners Associ­ation Aslam Khan Niazi said the association was engaged in talks with the Federal Board of Revenue regarding services charges in the provinces, but it did observe any strike on Monday.

“Tanker owners are already paying various taxes and duties and there is no need for additional taxes,” he said. “In case our issues are not resolved, the association will consider going on strike.”

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2016