ISLAMABAD — Finance Minister Miftah Ismail said on Friday that fuel prices will go up even more in the coming days. He blamed former minister Shaukat Tareen for making a bad deal with the IMF when the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf was in power.
The June 15 OGRA summary will say that prices need to go up even more to stop the country from losing money. According to the agreement, the price of flour should have gone up two months ago. He said that if we hadn’t raised prices, the rupee would have lost even more value due to inflation and would have been worth less.
The finance minister said, “The federal government is still giving a subsidy of Rs8, but it is losing Rs23 on diesel.” Ismail said that the PTI government had asked Russia for help three days before the no-confidence vote, but that Moscow had not responded.
“We’ll buy wheat and oil from Russia if they give us a good deal.” “We are talking to them about a deal,” he said.
After the price hike, a gallon of gas now costs Rs. 209.86.
New prices (per litre):
- Petrol — Rs209.86
- Diesel — Rs204.15
- Light diesel — 178.31
- Kerosene oil — Rs181.94
In the last eight days, this so-called experienced government raised the prices of gasoline, diesel, and other POL products by Rs 30. This was the biggest price hike in Pakistan’s history.
Even though the coalition government made a lot of promises, it has not been able to bring down the prices of essential goods. Instead, it has raised the prices of POL products and electricity.
Miftah said that the government is losing Rs8, Rs9, and Rs23 on light diesel, gasoline, and high-speed diesel, respectively.
He agreed that the poor would be hurt the most by the rise in gas prices, but he also said that the price of oil on the international market has also gone through the roof.
In response to a question, he said that he thought it was likely that an agreement would be reached with the IMF in June. He also said that the government would need to make some changes in order to get the loan.
“The IMF wants to see our budget, so we’ll start the changes we want to make before the budget.” We, on the other hand, talk to the IMF every day,” he said.
