The common man of Pakistan has again been struct with another Inflation strike. As the new country has yet again witnessed another Petrol price hike. This hike raised the petrol prices to an ever expensive petrol rate of Rs. 233. The new prices will take effect from midnight tonight, Finance Minister Miftah Ismail told a news conference in Islamabad.
The Minister of Finance accused the former PTI government of having reached a bad agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) which had “If we don’t increase oil prices, the country could face a default”. He added that it was a difficult decision though to increase the prices of petroleum products. The government has raised the price of petrol by more than Rs84 per liter in the last 20 days.
The minister said the international price of petrol was $120 per liter as he tried to justify the hike. He blamed PTI chairman and former premier Imran Khan’s policies that having “caused the current situation”. “I have been seeing the country’s situation for 30 years, but I’ve never seen such a situation in terms of inflation. We have taken difficult decisions before, and we will take in the future as well to protect the country from financial difficulties”.
The minister said the government would not bear a loss in the sale of petrol anymore as the fresh hike had brought the fuel price at par with its international rates.
This decision is made because we import 9 million tons of oil every year and 8.8m tonnes of diesel and if we did not increase the price, the government would have had to bear a loss of over Rs 100 billion monthly. The Minister of State added that the government accepts responsibility for its measures and would determine a new way forward for the country through difficult decisions.
“We will be better able to manipulate gasoline spending during our difficult time and family members of the country with economic institutions around the world improve”. Earlier this month, the federal authorities had determined to elevate the expenses of all petroleum merchandise aside from one with the help of the other using Rs. 30.
Just a week after creating a comparable increase. Back then, Miftah had stated the authorities changed into nonetheless going through a lack of around Rs. 9 in petrol despite an increase of Rs. 30 because it became “now they don’t accumulate taxes on petrol”. The minister had brought that the authorities changed to keep talking with the IMF each day.