Finance Minister, Miftah Ismail Thursday announced that the government has decided to increase the prices of petroleum products by Rs. 30 per liter, with the new prices set to go into effect at midnight.
“The government has decided to increase the prices of Petrol, High-Speed Diesel, Kerosene Oil, and Light Diesel Oil by Rs. 30 per liter from Friday, May 27, 2022. The new prices will go into effect at midnight. The new price of petrol will be Rs. 179.86 & diesel will be Rs. 174.15 per liter,” tweeted the Finance Minister.
Government has decided to increase the prices of Petrol, High Speed Diesel, Kerosene Oil and Light Diesel Oil by Rs 30 per litre from Friday May 27, 2022. New prices will go into effect at midnight. The new price of petrol will be Rs 179.86 & diesel will be Rs 174.15 per litre.
— Miftah Ismail (@MiftahIsmail) May 26, 2022
The Finance Minister said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has taken this difficult decision in the larger interest of the national economy. He said that this is a hard decision for the government to impose such kind of burden on the general public.
Miftah said that the decision was made in a bid to revive the $6 billion Bailout program of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The increase comes just a day after the government and the IMF failed to reach an agreement on a financial bailout owing to the former’s reluctance to reverse fuel and electricity subsidies, and the resulting budget uncertainty for the fiscal year 2022-23
In a press release, the Finance Division said that maintaining the existing petroleum products prices at the exiting subsidized rates is constantly increasing the twin deficit for the government besides posing huge risks for energy supply chain.
The statement added that Oil Marketing Companies (OMC) and Refineries are facing difficulties in getting confirmation of international banks for LCs/SBLCs, reluctance of local banks in opening of LCs and hardships of importers in obtaining insurance coverage for very high prices cargoes.
“In order to rationalize the petroleum products prices, the government has decided to revise the existing petroleum products prices. To keep prices of petroleum products affordable, prices are increased partially”, the statement added.
With the across-the-board increase of Rs. 30 per liter, the new price of petrol would be Rs. 179.86 per liter, up from the previous price of Rs. 149.86 per liter. The new price of high-speed diesel would be Rs. 174.15 per liter, up from Rs. 144.15 liter. The new price of kerosene would be Rs. 155.56 per liter, up from Rs. 125.56 and the new price of light diesel oil would be Rs. 148.31 per liter, up from Rs. 118.31 per liter, according to the Finance Division.
The last 3.5 years they have been shouting about incompetence, however they have shown to be more incompetent. They should have started raising fuel prices as soon as they came to power in steps of 7rs or 10rs and public would have felt less burden. However they cited political reasons for not taking “tough measures”. Whats good for Pakistan should take priority then their political careers if they claim to be honest towards the country.
Well said.
Read the other article, author. How do you think there’s a huge CAD? Previous government had eyes on snap polls (power greedy) and did not increase the prices. There is nothing ‘sudden’, it was always on the cards.