Petrol and diesel prices have been increased by Rs 30 per liter.
The new prices will be applicable from 12 noon tonight.
Speaking at a press conference in Islamabad, Finance Minister Miftah Ismail said that it was a difficult decision that we should impose more burden on the people and if we impose more burden, how much should we impose?
I used to say that it is necessary to impose some burden on the people because the government is suffering the damage.
New prices per liter of petroleum products:
Petrol 179 rupees 86 paisa
Diesel 174 rupees 15 paisa
Kerosene Rs. 155.56
Light diesel 148 rupees 31 paisa
He said that in the first 15 days of this month, a loss of Rs. 55 billion has been incurred and this government cannot bear it.
He said that if there is a loss of 100 or 125 billion rupees this month, then it is three times as much as running our civilian government.
On the one hand, the monthly expenditure of the entire government is Rs 42 billion while the subsidy on petrol and diesel is Rs 120 billion.
The Finance Minister said that a man is giving a subsidy of Rs. 40 to other Pakistanis on petrol.
The car owners get more subsidy and the bigger car is getting it and they are also giving subsidy to those who have more money.
He said that an average Pakistani earning income was subsidizing a richer Pakistani.
“Due to this subsidy, the use of petrol and diesel has also increased here and our external reserves are also under pressure,” he said.
Miftah Ismail said that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has also said that it will not lend unless we increase the price of petrol and diesel.