ISLAMABAD, June 2: The new coalition government continued to test the patience of the already beleaguered masses as hours after increasing the electricity prices by Rs7.91, it increased the petrol and diesel prices by Rs30 per litre.
Miftah Ismael dropped the bombshell in a press conference in which he tried to justify the government’s actions that would definitely lead to a tsunami of inflation and would make it hard for people to survive.
It is pertinent to note here that this is the second such increase within a span of two weeks as the coalition government led by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) raised the price of petrol by Rs30 per litre on May 26, the biggest increase in fuel price in the country’s history.
After the hike, the price of petrol will be at Rs209.86, diesel at Rs204.15, kerosene oil at Rs181.94 and light diesel at Rs178.31.
“The government is still facing a loss of around Rs9 in petrol despite a hike of Rs30 as we are not collecting any tax on the fuel,” the finance minister said.
He acknowledged that the lower-income segment of society would be affected the most as a result of the petrol price hike, but noted that the rate of oil has also sky-rocketed in the international market.
The new prices take effect from June 3, Miftah Ismail told the press conference. Miftah Ismail claimed that the government was still offering Rs54 per litre in subsidy on diesel.
He also said that the government would provide subsidies on rice, ghee, and sugar for the entire year and would not impose new taxes in the upcoming budget, set to be announced on June 10.
But the government needs to end the subsidies, Miftah said.
The finance minister said the government would complete a host of reforms it had agreed with the IMF before presenting budget.
He said regardless of the IMF demand to remove fuel subsidies, the Pakistani government could not afford to buy expensive fuel and sell it on cheaper rate.
Ismail claimed that fuel prices were so low in Pakistan that smuggling of fuel from Iran had stopped.
The Pakistan Muslim-League (PML-N) senior leader at the same timeannounced that the government had not decided to increase the price of electricity as yet.
The statement comes hours after the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) approved a massive increase of Rs7.91 per unit in the electricity tariffs.
With the new hike, the one-unit price of electrifying went up from Rs16.91 to Rs24.82. Nepra has sent the hike to the federal government for notification. The new tariffs will be applicable after the final notification from the government, according to a statement. -NNI
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