Minister of State for Petroleum Musadik Masood Malik Monday announced that the government will charge Rs. 100 per liter more from the rich and use this to subsidize petrol for the poor.
The minister’s announcement comes a day after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif directed to provide a relief of Rs. 50 per liter on petrol to the lower income families using motorcycles, rickshaws, and cars of up to 800cc.
Addressing a press conference, Malik said that the prime minister has now directed to take the difference of petrol price between the rich and poor to Rs. 100 per liter. Without going into details about how the subsidy will be implemented, he said that the subsidy will be in place within 6 weeks.
The minister also highlighted that the government will not allocate any subsidy for the scheme but the scheme would be financed by charging a higher price of petrol from the rich. He said that the staggered pricing mechanism has already been implemented in the gas sector.
He added that the government has decided in principle to tax the rich and provide relief to the poor.
It is pertinent to mention here that prices of petroleum products have risen sharply in Pakistan in the last year. The current price of petrol i.e. Rs. 272 per liter is the highest in the country’s history.
