Islamabad : In a devastating move, the Shahbaz government on Thursday increased the rates of petrol and diesel by Rs 137.24 and Rs 184. 49 per litre respectively to pass on the impact of the Middle East war on the end users in one go .
The new increase pushed -up petrol price to Rs 458.41 and diesel to Rs 520.35 per litre with immediate effect.
The government made the increase in petroleum levy massively to extort every possible penny from the people of Pakistan who are already facing killing inflation. With Thursday’s increase , the government will charge Rs 160.61 petroleum levy on every single litre consumed by the public in Pakistan. The Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) are the second beneficiary of this massive increase in the oil prices in Pakistan. OMCs profit / margin will go-up proportionate to the fresh increase in the oil prices.
In Pakistan this is the second major increase in the oil prices since the breakout of the Middle East war. The ME war has , undoubtedly , put the economy of every country under huge financial pressure , but mishandling of this unprecedented energy crisis by the Shahbaz government has added massive financial pressure on Pakistanis.
The Shahbaz government had increased the rates of petroleum products within 24 hours of the start of the ME war and then seeing sharp public reaction it ducked down for three weeks for next surge in the prices of petroleum products. During the last three weeks , the Shahbaz government kept taking credit of protecting Pakistanis from unprecedented surge in the oil prices globally. The prime minister repeatedly claimed during the last one week that his government bore Rs 129 billion financial impact of the rising oil prices for ensuring relief to the people of Pakistan. However , after three weeks, the Shahbaz government passed on the entire impact of the increase in the oil prices to the people of Pakistan in one go.
Brunt prices were ranging around $ 60 a barrel in post Iran war days and the rates of petrol in Pakistan were Rs 252 a litre. Now when the brent prices have gone up to $ 116 a barrel almost up by 80 % the actual rates of petrol per liter in Pakistan would have been Rs 460 per litre. The question arises as to why the government passed on the entire increase in the oil prices to the end consumers when it had cut down development budget by Rs 200 billion and also claimed of having saved another Rs100 billion from austerity drive?. The government strategy of uploading the entire surge in the oil prices accumulatively to the end buyers in one go after three weeks of the war seems a total failure.
One winder how Petroleum minister, Ali Malik, is quoting misleading figures of brent prices at the pressures. He quoted the pride of the brent at $ 250 per barrel in his mid night press talk on Thursday.
One fails to understand why Petroleum minister is lying to the public about the brent prices and what he means when he claims the rates of brent at $ 250 a barrel.
The government decision of giving subsidy to motorcyclists, small farmers , public transporters and the Pakistan Railways may not yield desired result as the devastating surge in the oil prices will open up a big floodgate of price hike and make the lives of Pakistanis more miserable in the coming days and weeks.