By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Taking another ‘tough’ step closer to the elusive half of the IMF loan, the government late on Wednesday raised the petroleum products rates to the highest the country has ever seen, reversing the fuel subsidies completely.
“Starting from June 16, the price of petrol will be Rs233.89 per litre, diesel will be Rs263.31, kerosene oil will be sold for Rs211.43, and the price of light diesel oil will be Rs207.47,” Finance Minister Miftah Ismail announced in a late night presser.
This came after the IMF shook its head over the budgetary measures in Finance Bill 2022-23, demanding Pakistan to ‘completely wean the consumer off all the state-funded concessions’ to qualify for the next loan tranche of around $1 billion.
Miftah opened the press conference with a scathing attack on the previous government’s policies which, according to him, “devastated the country’s economy”.
“Imran Khan plotted against the incoming government by freezing the prices of fuels through subsidies before his ouster,” Miftah said, adding the government was paying the price for the PTI regime’s destructive decisions.
The government has increased the petrol price by over Rs84/litre within 20 days.
“We had no choice but to “pass on” the impact of international prices to consumers.”
According to the finance minister, on every litre of petrol, diesel, kerosene, and light diesel oil, the national kitty was taking a hit of Rs24.03, Rs59.16, Rs39.49, and Rs39.16, respectively.
“In the month of May 2022, these losses crossed Rs120 billion, three-fold higher than the cost of running a civilian government, which amounts to Rs40 million.”
Mifrtah said the government was bound to honour the agreements the PTI government signed with the IMF.
He said he was fully alive to the fact that the middle class would come under severe financial pressure, but the government would try its best to cushion the shock to the most exposed segments of society.
“We have taken tough decisions before and we will take more in the future as well to protect the country from financial crisis,” the minister said.
He added that the government would not fund any subsidies on the sale of petrol anymore.
“I have been seeing the country’s situation for 30 years, but I’ve never seen such a situation in terms of inflation.”
The PTI leader Fawad Chaudhry condemned the third hike in petroleum prices through Twitter saying, “We denounce this midnight robbery with all we are worth. This massive Increase in petrol prices has devastated the middle class. The public is urged to join the protest against this inefficient and ominous government.”
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