Latest news with #OfftheGrid
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Off the grid with Josh Duhamel: survival, fatherhood and the art of aging well
Josh Duhamel didn't just talk to me about going off the grid — he took me there. Zooming in from his remote Minnesota cabin, a giant American flag draped in the background of his office, the actor was more than happy to offer a quick tour of the compound he's spent the last 15 years building from the ground up. You might have read about it as his "doomsday" bunker. 'You want to see?' he asked, before walking outside to reveal a peaceful lakeside view, a grill area and a croquet course that's apparently a very big deal. 'We have these mini — actually, not mini — it's a big croquet competition we do,' he said, panning the computer camera to a grassy patch. A deer casually wandered by. 'Who wins?' I asked. 'Well, me naturally,' he grinned. 'I mean, I won the last game … but also, I made the course. It was a bit of a home-field advantage.' The setting couldn't have been more fitting as we were talking about his new film Off the Grid, on demand now, in which he plays a brilliant scientist who disappears into the wilderness to protect a dangerous piece of technology from falling into the wrong hands. The irony of life (somewhat) imitating art isn't lost on the actor. "The fact that he took this thing and went into hiding in the middle of nowhere — that fascinated me, because as I just showed you, I have a real affinity for that," he said. "I don't know if I'm afraid of a zombie apocalypse or what, but I've always had this idea that, OK, what if something happens? Could I do it? Could we live off the land? I can tell you pretty positively right now — no. But I'm getting better." While he admits he's not quite ready for the apocalypse, Duhamel said there's something deeply satisfying about the hands-on, back-to-basics rhythm of his daily life right now. "It gives me purpose. I just love it," he said. "I'm out here fixing things all day long, creating games for the kids, pulling them on the jet ski or on my tractor clearing brush. I'm always busy doing something. There's something about that world — knowing how difficult it would be — that fascinates me." That same sense of isolation and self-reliance plays a key role in Off the Grid, prompting Duhamel to reflect on his own relationship with nature, solitude and survival. "I've had the luxury of doing this with my family — with my wife and kids. Our families are close by," he explained. "But the idea that [my character] would be out there by himself for that long ... how do you deal with the loneliness that he must've felt and this yearning for real human connection?" Duhamel lives with his wife of nearly three years, Audra Mari, and their 17-month-old son, Shepherd. He's also father to son Axl, 11, whom he shares with his ex-wife, Fergie. "I can't believe my wife even wanted to be with me, to be honest," the actor joked, reflecting on what Mari signed up for as he built his dream compound. "I started here with just a floating dock. I didn't even have a boat. We were literally washing dishes in the lake, had no plumbing, no bathrooms — we were using an outhouse. It was like homesteading. It really was. Now we've got three cabins out here — two little guest ones and this one. It's been a 15-year process." One aspect Duhamel is perfectly fine leaving to the movies? The high-stakes danger. 'I'm not fighting off any bad guys out here,' he laughed. But for Off the Grid, he still had to get in fighting shape, and at 51, that looks a little different than it did 20 years ago. These days, he said, staying fit for physically demanding roles comes with some new considerations. 'I try to stay in good shape, especially before we start shooting. I'm not a crazy fitness freak, but I try to stay healthy, generally eat well, do some kind of exercise every day,' he explained. 'But it's really about recovery. You're falling and banging yourself up for two months straight. For me, yoga is big — just to stay flexible and keep my back and knees from going out. I'm never going to be The Rock. I've tried. I just can't.' I pointed out he pulled off his shirtless scene in Off the Grid just fine. 'It wasn't great,' he laughed. 'It wasn't great. Come on now.' The self-deprecation might be classic Duhamel, but he's not brushing off the reality that aging in Hollywood comes with its own set of scrutiny, even for men. I asked if actors feel industry pressure to stay 'forever young,' something I often talk about with his female counterparts, and Duhamel said those expectations exist for everyone. It's part of what inspired him to launch his men's wellness company, Gatlan. "I started taking testosterone a few years ago, peptides. I'm always looking at what keeps me feeling young, especially because I've got young kids," he said. For the Transformers alum, aging well isn't about appearances; it's about energy. "I want to be rolling around in the dirt with them like I did in my thirties," he said. "That was a big motivation behind Gatlan. I'd learned a lot of secrets from other guys in the industry, and thought, 'Why don't I just share this with the masses?' Nobody wants to talk about it, but it's a real thing, and it's helped me tremendously. So yeah — part of it is good habits, good regimens, eating right, but also taking advantage of the science that's out there." Living in rural Minnesota means leaving some luxuries behind, and Duhamel admitted there are a few Hollywood comforts he occasionally misses. 'Sushi restaurants. All the restaurants. The nightlife. Instacart. Uber Eats,' he smiled. 'Out here, we're over 40 miles from anything. We have to bring all of our food here. But that's part of the fun. We really do have to plan and bring what we need.' It's a tradeoff he's happy to make, especially when it comes to the perks of raising his kids. Minnesota affords much more privacy than the paparazzi-happy California coast, but Duhamel said both places offer something important. 'It's a really good place for my 11-year-old son,' he said. 'I'm starting to teach him some of the things that someday he's going to have to know to take care of this place. And there's a lot of s*** to know.' That education includes everything from storm cleanup to small-engine basics. 'Yesterday, we had a giant storm come through here: trees were down, branches everywhere. So I gave him the little saw, and he went out there and started cutting branches up and stacking them in the burn pit. Little things like that,' Duhamel shared. 'Teaching him how the battery works … just things I used to take for granted. He misses playing soccer and seeing his friends. He's getting all the great things that Los Angeles has to offer, but out here it's totally different. And I think he loves it equally as much.' That same sense of simplicity, of slowing down and noticing the little things, is something Duhamel believes we're all craving right now, whether we realize it or not. That's evident as his blue sky cowboy drama, Ransom Canyon, was just renewed for a second season by Netflix. 'I think that because there's just so much technology in our faces all the time ... everything is so touch of a button and it's there. We're losing that connection to the simple things that we just sort of look past or don't even notice,' he said. 'I think that shows like Ransom Canyon did a beautiful job of just breathing life into things that are otherwise seen as mundane and boring, and making it feel like, 'Oh God, there's something really refreshing about sitting on your porch, looking out at the pasture and horses running.'" Because in a world that's only getting faster, Duhamel shows there is power in slowing down — in fixing what's broken, building something lasting and and maybe even making time for a croquet match or two. "It's good for the soul," he said. "I'm telling you.'
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Off the grid with Josh Duhamel: survival, fatherhood and the art of aging well
Josh Duhamel didn't just talk to me about going off the grid — he took me there. Zooming in from his remote Minnesota cabin, a giant American flag draped in the background of his office, the actor was more than happy to offer a quick tour of the compound he's spent the last 15 years building from the ground up. You might have read about it as his "doomsday" bunker. 'You want to see?' he asked, before walking outside to reveal a peaceful lakeside view, a grill area and a croquet course that's apparently a very big deal. 'We have these mini — actually, not mini — it's a big croquet competition we do,' he said, panning the computer camera to a grassy patch. A deer casually wandered by. 'Who wins?' I asked. 'Well, me naturally,' he grinned. 'I mean, I won the last game … but also, I made the course. It was a bit of a home-field advantage.' The setting couldn't have been more fitting as we were talking about his new film Off the Grid, on demand now, in which he plays a brilliant scientist who disappears into the wilderness to protect a dangerous piece of technology from falling into the wrong hands. The irony of life (somewhat) imitating art isn't lost on the actor. "The fact that he took this thing and went into hiding in the middle of nowhere — that fascinated me, because as I just showed you, I have a real affinity for that," he said. "I don't know if I'm afraid of a zombie apocalypse or what, but I've always had this idea that, OK, what if something happens? Could I do it? Could we live off the land? I can tell you pretty positively right now — no. But I'm getting better." While he admits he's not quite ready for the apocalypse, Duhamel said there's something deeply satisfying about the hands-on, back-to-basics rhythm of his daily life right now. "It gives me purpose. I just love it," he said. "I'm out here fixing things all day long, creating games for the kids, pulling them on the jet ski or on my tractor clearing brush. I'm always busy doing something. There's something about that world — knowing how difficult it would be — that fascinates me." That same sense of isolation and self-reliance plays a key role in Off the Grid, prompting Duhamel to reflect on his own relationship with nature, solitude and survival. "I've had the luxury of doing this with my family — with my wife and kids. Our families are close by," he explained. "But the idea that [my character] would be out there by himself for that long ... how do you deal with the loneliness that he must've felt and this yearning for real human connection?" Duhamel lives with his wife of nearly three years, Audra Mari, and their 17-month-old son, Shepherd. He's also father to son Axl, 11, whom he shares with his ex-wife, Fergie. "I can't believe my wife even wanted to be with me, to be honest," the actor joked, reflecting on what Mari signed up for as he built his dream compound. "I started here with just a floating dock. I didn't even have a boat. We were literally washing dishes in the lake, had no plumbing, no bathrooms — we were using an outhouse. It was like homesteading. It really was. Now we've got three cabins out here — two little guest ones and this one. It's been a 15-year process." View this post on Instagram A post shared by Josh Duhamel (@joshduhamel) One aspect Duhamel is perfectly fine leaving to the movies? The high-stakes danger. 'I'm not fighting off any bad guys out here,' he laughed. But for Off the Grid, he still had to get in fighting shape, and at 51, that looks a little different than it did 20 years ago. These days, he said, staying fit for physically demanding roles comes with some new considerations. 'I try to stay in good shape, especially before we start shooting. I'm not a crazy fitness freak, but I try to stay healthy, generally eat well, do some kind of exercise every day,' he explained. 'But it's really about recovery. You're falling and banging yourself up for two months straight. For me, yoga is big — just to stay flexible and keep my back and knees from going out. I'm never going to be The Rock. I've tried. I just can't.' I pointed out he pulled off his shirtless scene in Off the Grid just fine. 'It wasn't great,' he laughed. 'It wasn't great. Come on now.' The self-deprecation might be classic Duhamel, but he's not brushing off the reality that aging in Hollywood comes with its own set of scrutiny, even for men. I asked if actors feel industry pressure to stay 'forever young,' something I often talk about with his female counterparts, and Duhamel said those expectations exist for everyone. It's part of what inspired him to launch his men's wellness company, Gatlan. "I started taking testosterone a few years ago, peptides. I'm always looking at what keeps me feeling young, especially because I've got young kids," he said. For the Transformers alum, aging well isn't about appearances; it's about energy. "I want to be rolling around in the dirt with them like I did in my thirties," he said. "That was a big motivation behind Gatlan. I'd learned a lot of secrets from other guys in the industry, and thought, 'Why don't I just share this with the masses?' Nobody wants to talk about it, but it's a real thing, and it's helped me tremendously. So yeah — part of it is good habits, good regimens, eating right, but also taking advantage of the science that's out there." Living in rural Minnesota means leaving some luxuries behind, and Duhamel admitted there are a few Hollywood comforts he occasionally misses. 'Sushi restaurants. All the restaurants. The nightlife. Instacart. Uber Eats,' he smiled. 'Out here, we're over 40 miles from anything. We have to bring all of our food here. But that's part of the fun. We really do have to plan and bring what we need.' It's a tradeoff he's happy to make, especially when it comes to the perks of raising his kids. Minnesota affords much more privacy than the paparazzi-happy California coast, but Duhamel said both places offer something important. 'It's a really good place for my 11-year-old son,' he said. 'I'm starting to teach him some of the things that someday he's going to have to know to take care of this place. And there's a lot of s*** to know.' That education includes everything from storm cleanup to small-engine basics. 'Yesterday, we had a giant storm come through here: trees were down, branches everywhere. So I gave him the little saw, and he went out there and started cutting branches up and stacking them in the burn pit. Little things like that,' Duhamel shared. 'Teaching him how the battery works … just things I used to take for granted. He misses playing soccer and seeing his friends. He's getting all the great things that Los Angeles has to offer, but out here it's totally different. And I think he loves it equally as much.' That same sense of simplicity, of slowing down and noticing the little things, is something Duhamel believes we're all craving right now, whether we realize it or not. That's evident as his blue sky cowboy drama, Ransom Canyon, was just renewed for a second season by Netflix. 'I think that because there's just so much technology in our faces all the time ... everything is so touch of a button and it's there. We're losing that connection to the simple things that we just sort of look past or don't even notice,' he said. 'I think that shows like Ransom Canyon did a beautiful job of just breathing life into things that are otherwise seen as mundane and boring, and making it feel like, 'Oh God, there's something really refreshing about sitting on your porch, looking out at the pasture and horses running.'" Because in a world that's only getting faster, Duhamel shows there is power in slowing down — in fixing what's broken, building something lasting and and maybe even making time for a croquet match or two. "It's good for the soul," he said. "I'm telling you.'
Newsweek
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Newsweek
Greg Kinnear Was at a Career Crossroads—Then This Film Changed Everything
Actor Greg Kinnear. Actor Greg Kinnear. CJ Rivera/Apple TV+ "I usually have a terrible memory for so many things, but the experiences that I have making things is pretty visceral." Lately, Greg Kinnear is just trying to keep his head on straight due to his embarrassment of riches, from Smoke on Apple TV+ and the film Off the Grid. "You kind of have to shuffle around the bottom of your proverbial briefcase to pull up this old project. Smoke, we did it a year ago, Off the Grid, we did last year. So there's always a little bit of, 'Who the hell did I play?'" For the arson crime thriller Smoke, Kinnear teamed up with Taron Egerton and Dennis Lehane. "Very CGI light on this. It was real fire. When we were playing with it, we were playing with the real thing." And in Off the Grid, Kinnear is the bad guy chasing down Josh Duhamel through the woods. "You want to punch the bad guy in the face. And who better? When they look at my face, wanting to punch is pretty much a universal reaction." While that's not necessarily true, Kinnear is happy to be playing against type in both projects. "It's a great thing about what we do...[when] the people who create these ideas and come up when it's well done, and craft a world, and you're allowed into that world." SUBSCRIBE TO THE PARTING SHOT WITH H. ALAN SCOTT ON APPLE PODCASTS OR SPOTIFY AND WATCH ON YOUTUBE Editor's Note: This conversation has been edited and condensed for publication. You know, one of the things that I respect about your career is that you started off as a personality on TV. You really were on that talk show host track, and then it shifted to acting. It was crazy. I mean, it was unusual, particularly at that time. It was kind of weird to go from the TV to film, now I feel like people do it all the time. You don't think about it. You see people in commercials, and they do everything. But it was a very kind of weird environment in terms of separation of church and state back then, and how the hell Sydney Pollack [director of Sabrina] allowed me to climb over the wall and do Sabrina, I don't know, but credit to him. I mean, that's Sydney Pollack and Harrison Ford. That's a nosedive into the film world. Lot of people would say belly flop, yeah. But [you] got to do it whatever way you got to do. So for a show like Smoke, when you're looking at a project like this, there's your character but there's also the story. What do you respond to first? Well, in the case of this, I think I responded first and foremost to the fact that a couple years ago, I worked with Dennis Lehane and Taron on Blackbird, which we did in COVID and it was kind of a crazy time. But Dennis cast that show so well. It was a wonderful group of people and actors. The team that he had, the support team of directors and producers, were all excellent. And his writing, both as a novelist and as a showrunner, really, I think kind of blossomed. He had done some other stuff, but I think Blackbird, really, set the stage for Dennis. So listen, loved to be along for that ride. And when he was mumbling the idea of maybe another show, there wasn't a long conversation. I said yes way before he did and looked forward to the opportunity of working with [him]. And then, in this case, he got Taron, you have a lot of the same producing, directing team came over. The world of arson is not something I necessarily would [be] fascinated by, [arson] probably wouldn't have been the ticket I would have pulled. But that's true all the time. It's the great thing about being an actor. It's a great thing about what we do is, that the people who create these ideas go and dig and dive so heavily onto a subject matter and come up when it's well done, and craft a world, and you're allowed into that world. And in this case, it's a pretty exotic world. I mean, you think of crime, even serial killers, I feel they've been in front of us to a point where they kind of just wash off us. You see one serial killer, you've seen them all. Not the case with Blackbird, but I'm saying in general that subject matter is used a lot, and then you think of fire and arson, and how strange and what a distance I think there is from any typical viewer to what happens in that world, how it exists. But sure enough, you give it to a guy like Dennis and his great writing team, and they really, I think, unlocked it in a way where I was excited to be a part of it. It's kind of different sort of role for me. And again, working with just great people. Greg Kinnear in "Smoke," now streaming on Apple TV+. Greg Kinnear in "Smoke," now streaming on Apple TV+. Apple TV+. The fire itself is also kind of like a monster or the villain. Yeah, I think you're right. Fire, strangely, it should be something made easily to create as the monster, but I don't think it is. Again, there's some sort of tax on the imagination that really forces, I think, the storytellers, in the case of Smoke, to make it visceral, make it real. There's, for the most part, very CGI light on this. It was real fire. When we were playing with it, we were playing with the real thing. And I think the intimacy and the immediacy of that really bleeds through on the show. You have a palpable experience with it in the show, and you feel it, I think, in a really effective way. But yeah, we got a lot of scary monsters in this show, whether they're fire or not. Between Smoke and Off the Grid, how do you keep track of your projects when they're released so close to each other? Well, you kind of have to shuffle around the bottom of your proverbial briefcase to pull up this old project. In the case of Smoke, we did it a year ago, Off the Grid, we did last year. These projects, they take a while before they ever come to life. So there's always a little bit of a process of saying, "Now, who the hell did I play? What am I doing?" That's just kind of the name of the game. And I usually have a terrible memory for so many things, but the experiences that I have making things is pretty visceral. What about Off the Grid appealed to you? I had met Josh before briefly, but I don't really know him. And he's like a 6'5" football linebacker, and when I heard the concept, they're like, "We're making this movie called Off the Grid, and Josh is the guy." I was like, "Oh, I understand that." So sure enough, Josh is a guy who has gone off the grid with a piece of technology, and the bad guys are trying to get it back, and I am playing one of the key bad guys who must do everything to get it back and doesn't particularly like the bayou or the woods where he is residing. What I find interesting about you is that, if I saw you in the grocery store, I wouldn't be nervous to say hello, you seem nice. So when you play bad or evil, it's a bit of a plot twist. Well, I have played some bad guys. And I just did—Disney's doing kind of a reimagining of Holes and played the Sigourney Weaver role of the warden, who's just this devilishly fun character. Off the Grid was, case in point, they sent it to me, and I was like, "Oh my gosh, I never get to be the bad guy going after the guy." And I look at any of those movies that I've liked where you're the villain, and you're chasing the guy, and it just seemed like, "Okay, here we go. We're gonna put the bug repellent on and chase Josh, see where this goes." But it was fun to do. And in a weird way, it makes you want to see the bad guy get it more. Because if you wanna like him, and he gets to be as bad as he is, it just makes the justice so much more sweet. Yeah, you got it. You want to punch the bad guy in the face. And who better when they look at me, wanting to punch is pretty much a universal reaction. I don't know if that's true. Which I think is partly why it works, because we don't start off wanting to punch you, we want to like you. But then, yeah, you're bad. Yeah, I feel like, like I said, I don't get to do it very often, but when it's offered, it is fun to do. If I'm being honest, it does play against type a little bit. It's not necessarily a goal to want to kill or maim or hurt people, but you know, that's the great thing [about acting], that we get to do lots of stuff that we don't otherwise get to do. Where's the Great Western? I think Kevin Costner has that locked up. He's got the corner on that. Greg Kinnear (L), Jack Nicholson (C) and Helen Hunt (R) film As Good as it Gets. Greg Kinnear (L), Jack Nicholson (C) and Helen Hunt (R) film As Good as it Gets. Mitchell Gerber/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images Well, I can't spend time with you without bringing up As Good as It Gets. That film seems like it changed everything for you. From an Oscar nomination to just being able to work with that level of talent: James L. Brooks, Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt. We're coming up on nearly 30 years since it was released. Did that film change everything for you? Yeah, it's interesting. I had done Talk Soup. And I was doing a late night show. I had taken over for Bob Costas. And while I was there, I kind of went in, hat in hand, to Don Ohlmeyer, who ran the channel, and who was a pretty imposing tough guy historically in our business. And I kind of managed to ask, beg and plead to be able to do the first couple of movies that I was able to do. And I would come in and bank five shows, talk shows, in a day, and then go off and shoot a movie here or there. And As Good as It Gets came along, and Jim offered me the role. And I was really at a crossroads. I was like, "Well, it's going to be in L.A., it's a big role and a lot of time." And I was just suddenly faced with, wow, okay, so I've been on this trajectory of kind of a television host, interviewer, whatever. And the fork was there, to continue that, or I was going to really have to step over into acting. It really caused some soul searching. And I thank Jim so much because he handed me that role, which was an incredible, incredible role. And obviously the material is so amazing. It's got heart, and it's got laughs, and it's got something thoughtful to kind of meditate on and it's got Verdell the dog. So, I did have a lot of things there that allowed me to say, "Well, I'm going to give this a shot. Who knows where all of this goes." I ended up having to walk away from the talk show at NBC. That movie meant to me a great deal, because obviously it was successful, but you don't know that when you're making it. I mean, I knew I thought it was good, but I hadn't done enough movies at the time. Didn't know what we were doing was good. When I am [impersonating] Jack standing at a door going, "Don't bother me ever," and kind of just basically unloading a cannon into my face of Nicholson'isms, I was thinking, "All right, this is a life highlight." If this goes nowhere, but hopefully the audience will respond as well, and obviously they did. So it was a pivotal movie in a lot of ways, from that standpoint. Well, there's also another aspect to it that I found particularly interesting. It was part of an era of portrayals on film of gay characters who weren't tragic, who weren't dying. Simon was able to just be Simon. And that was a real shift in film from films of the '80s and '90s that, rightfully so, focused on portrayals of violence or HIV/AIDS. Did that stand out to you? It did. I read it and I thought, "Wow." I mean, first and foremost, the fact that Simon was gay was secondary to a racist, misogynist, really messed up guy [Jack Nicholson's Melvin] and his [Simon's] decency was right there in the page. And that's really, first and foremost, what I took note of and thought, "Wow, my gosh, this is so great." Because I know exactly what you mean. We had seen that role where we're going to get all sorts of yucks out of this guy. It's like a lever you can pull. The transition we're always going through in terms of big entertainment is so many things, they start as stereotypes, and then maybe they become just types, and then maybe they just become characters, and then they just become people. And I feel like, yes, that was happening at that time, but I felt, wow, what a leap forward with this script. What a lovely character that's been drawn up with Simon, and I just wanted him to find success and love and happiness like I do in every character. It really was just such a special film and performance and certainly meant a lot to me. Oh, I'm so happy to hear that. I'm so appreciative. And, gosh, I can't believe, it was Father's Day yesterday, and I showed my daughter, because it's like, the one day of the year I'm able to say, "Guys, I'm picking the movie." There's no conversation. It's not like we're gonna talk about it. I'm picking the movie. So I—and I don't know why, I guess because somebody was just telling me it's the 50-year anniversary, I didn't realize, but of [One Flew Over the] Cuckoo's Nest—and so we fired that up last night, and I hadn't seen it for years, and my kids had never seen it, and I was just like, "Oh my gosh, what a beautiful treasure of a film." I mean so much nuance and so many unspoken moments that are making people laugh in our little theater, which is our living room, but making my kids laugh that it wasn't even dialogue. Wasn't a joke. It was just so beautifully constructed. And funny enough, when I got As Good as It Gets, because my daughter asked me, "Oh, did you talk to Mr. Nicholson about that?" And I was like, "No, I refused to watch it because I was already so scared to meet this guy." The last thing I was going to do is go fawn over him, watch the movie and then show up and say, "Tell me about the scene where you and Chief were sinking baskets." I was way too over my head in that movie to begin with. But watching it now, I don't know, I'll have to hit him up with a couple new questions.
Epoch Times
29-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Epoch Times
‘Off The Grid': Josh Duhamel as a Rambo-Oppenheimer Mash-up
R | 1h 37m | Thriller, Drama | 2025 Coming courtesy of Lionsgate, the new action thriller 'Off the Grid' stars 'Transformers' star Josh Duhamel as a guy who's got a combination of Oppenheimer's brains, MacGyver's ingenuity, and Rambo's survival skill set. Of course, he holds the fate of humanity in his hands. Greg Kinnear ('As Good as It Gets'), and Peter Stormare ('John Wick: Chapter 2') are the baddies.
Business Recorder
11-06-2025
- Business
- Business Recorder
Petroleum products: 26.4pc rise in PL envisaged
ISLAMABAD: The federal budget 2025-26 envisages a 26.4 percent raise in petroleum levy (PL) on petroleum products after raising its maximum limit to Rs 90 per litre from Rs 70 per litre. A significant Rs 1,468.395 billion PL on petroleum products has been budgeted for upcoming fiscal year. This represents a substantial rise of Rs 307.395 billion compared to the current revised estimates of Rs 1,161 billion for the ongoing fiscal year. It is also considerably higher than the original budgeted PL of Rs 1,281 billion for the outgoing fiscal year 2024-25. Next fiscal year's budgeted PL is Rs 158 billion higher than what was projected for next fiscal year under this head by the International Monetary Fund in its first staff-level report uploaded on its website on May 17, 2025. The projected collection is Rs 1311 billion for next fiscal year. Last 3-1/2 months of FY25: petroleum levy hike by Rs18.02 to generate Rs90bn revenue The PL revenue has been given a high priority by successive federal governments as it is not part of the Federal Divisible Pool (FDP) that has to be shared with the provinces as per the National Finance Commission (NFC) formula. A budgeted target of Rs 105 billion through imposition of a levy on Off the Grid (Captive Power Plants) has been set for next fiscal year. The National Assembly passed the 'Off the Grid (Captive Power Plants) Levy Bill, 2025'. This levy, initially 5 percent, will increase to 10 percent by July 2025, 15 percent by February 2026, and 20 percent by August 2026. The government has also proposed to increase the Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC) collection at Rs 2.4 billion for the next fiscal year from revised current estimates of Rs 1 billion. The GIDC was originally budgeted at an amount of Rs2.5 billion for the current fiscal. In June 2020, the Supreme Court of Pakistan ruled that various sectors of the economy must clear outstanding Rs 407 billion GIDC in 60 months but the government has yet to realize this amount due to stay orders obtained by various companies. Natural Gas Development Surcharge (GDS) - the difference between prescribed and sale price of gas that goes to provinces - is projected to bring Rs49.437 billion next year against original budgeted Rs25.618 billion and revised Rs48 billion in the outgoing fiscal year. The government has also envisaged to collect Rs5 billion for the PL on Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) in next fiscal 2025-26. This is compared to the revised target of Rs 3.156 billion for the current fiscal year. The original budget for the PL on LPG in the current fiscal year was at Rs3.537 billion. The budget for fiscal year 2025-26 envisages Rs30 billion to be retained as a discount on local crude oil prices. This is higher than the revised estimate of Rs 25 billion for the current fiscal year the same as budgeted for the current year. The budget for next year proposes an increase in royalty on crude oil and increase in royalty on natural gas for provinces. The budgeted amount for royalty on crude oil is set at Rs69 billion for next financial year against the revised estimates of Rs64 billion for the outgoing year. The government budgeted Rs38 billion in royalty on natural gas in the next financial year against a revised target of Rs135 billion and budgeted Rs103.751 billion in 2024-25. Next year's budget envisages Rs20 billion on account of windfall levy on crude oil against budgeted amount of Rs 28 billion for the current financial year 2024-25. Windfall levy on gas has been budgeted at Rs 450 million which was revised estimates of Rs450 million in current fiscal year. Miscellaneous receipts of oil and gas companies are budgeted to generate Rs 1887.682 billion against a revised estimate of Rs 1464.606 billion and budgeted estimates of Rs 1528.46 billion in the outgoing financial year. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
