Finance Minister Miftah Ismail announces massive hike in the price of petroleum products
\n ISLAMABAD
\nFinance Minister Miftah Ismail announced Thursday a massive hike in the price of petroleum products after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) emphasised abolishing the subsidies on the commodities.
\nIn a press conference, the finance minister said the government has decided to hike the price of petrol, diesel, kerosene oil, and light diesel by Rs30, effectively from May 27.
\nThe finance minister noted some burden was shifted on the masses, but despite the massive increase in the price of petroleum products, the government was still bearing losses.
\nPakistan and the IMF could not reach a staff-level agreement a day earlier after the Fund said there were deviations from the policies that were agreed between both sides.
\nThe PTI-led government had originally agreed to the IMF\u2019s demand of raising the price of electricity and petroleum products but, later in March, Imran Khan announced subsidies on both commodities \u2014 and the current government was continuing with the same arrangement.
\nThe finance minister noted that following the decision to hike the prices, financial markets would witness stability, the rupee would strengthen, and the economy would get a boost.
\nIn response to a question, Ismail said due to an increase in the price of petroleum products, inflation would definitely witness an increase. \u201cBut tell me, what option did we have instead of taking this step.\u201d
\nIsmail said Khan \u2014 going against the IMF deal \u2014 had announced subsidies on petroleum products when his government\u2019s tenure was coming to an end.
\n\u201cWe are all the owners of a country. How can we afford [such subsidies] that are costing three times more than running the everyday affairs of the governments,\u201d the finance minister said.
\nIsmail said it was an injustice to the lower-income segment of the society that the people who own cars, industries, and generators, are getting subsidies.
\n\u201cIndeed, this is the failure of the government that inflation is rising […] but we have provided subsidies on commodities at utility stores and are making sugar available at a lesser cost than Imran Khan\u2019s government,\u201d he said.
\nIsmail said increasing the price of petroleum products by Rs30 was not an easy decision for Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, but vowed that the incumbent government would take steps to safeguard the economy.
\nQuoting Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, Ismail said: \u201cKhawaja Asif sahab, in today\u2019s talks, noted that it would not be a wise decision to [damage] the state and save our politics.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Finance Minister Miftah Ismail announces massive hike in the price of petroleum products ISLAMABAD Finance Minister Miftah Ismail announced Thursday a massive hike in the price of petroleum products after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) emphasised abolishing the subsidies on the commodities. In a press conference, the finance minister said the government has decided to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":260678,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[3286,2416,7780],"class_list":{"0":"post-262833","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-news","8":"tag-increase","9":"tag-miftah-ismail","10":"tag-petrol-price"},"yoast_head":"\n