By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The government on Thursday cut fuel prices to give relief to inflation-hit consumers as global oil prices fall, the prime minister said.
Petrol price was cut by Rs18.50 per litre and diesel by Rs40.54 per litre. The rates go into effect from July 15.
“Today fuel prices in international prices are coming down. We are passing on the benefit to the common man,” Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said in a televised address.
“We raised prices due to rising international prices and the common man suffered due to it. We had no option and had to take unpopular decisions,” Sharif added.
The government trice raised fuel prices by a total of almost Rs100 per litre to meet conditions set by the International Monetary Fund for the resumption of a bailout package.
“The previous government did not honor the agreement it reached with the IMF. While on its way out the previous government froze the fuel prices, which made matters worse,” the prime minister said.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Pakistan have reached a staff-level agreement on the seventh and eight reviews of the Fund’s $6 billion bailout programme that will allow for a disbursement of $1.177 billion.
Sharif said last month’s increase in fuel prices had burdened the underprivileged segment of the society. “We had no other way. We had to take tough measures.”
“However, today with God’s blessing, oil prices are declining in global markets and it is by his mercy that today we have got the chance to reduce the prices.”
Oil prices settled lower on Thursday, but pared nearly all losses after falling more than $4 earlier in the session as investors focused on the prospect of a large U.S. rate hike later this month that could stem inflation but at the same time hit oil demand.
Brent crude futures for September settled down 47 cents, or 0.5 percent to $99.10 a barrel and finished a third session in a row below $100. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude for August delivery settled down $95.78 a barrel, or 0.5 percent, down 52 cents.
Some obervers say the government move focuses to influence key provincial by polls in Punjab that would decide the fate of PM son’s ineffective government, analysts said.
The elections are due on July 17, 2022. The PM Sharif took the decision of a price cut at a meeting held in the provincial capital Lahore
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