Finance Minister Miftah Ismail has claimed that Pakistan will fail if the government did not reduce the subsidies on petroleum goods.
“The MPs are furious with me on the suggestions to raise the price but I have no other alternative and if they do not take action then the nation would default,” Ismail said while addressing a post-budget conference held by The News and Business Recorder in Islamabad on Monday.
“Pakistan’s economic position has never been so awful in the past as it is confronting now,” he remarked. It would take two to three months for the present administration to manage inflation, he noted.
The finance minister said that the incumbent government was facing a circular debt of Rs. 2,500 billion and NEPRA was taking five months old price, adding that instead of giving a subsidy of Rs 1,100 billion to the energy sector the government was still not able to get out of the current economic crisis.
“We are bringing merchants into the tax net,” he added, adding that many individuals had complained about the quality of the flour.
Ismail noted that the costs of oil were growing in the international market, while the rising cost of coal had also raised the cost of the generation of power.
Hinting at an increase in the price of gas and fuel, he stated that the fuel departments have been experiencing a deficit as the circular debt of the gas has reached Rs1,500 billion.
The minister claimed that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was not satisfied with the rise in the pricing of petroleum items.
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