Pakistan slips into serious trouble as fuel prices go up
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New Delhi: Pakistan has raised the prices of petrol by Rupees 35 and diesel by rupees 18, adding to the worries of alarming food crisis in the nation.
Pakistan Finance Minister Ishaq Dar announced new prices in a televised address, days after rupee touched lowest value against the dollar in the interbank and open market, according to NDTV.
"Government announced new prices of Petroleum Products with effect from 11.00 hrs, 29 Jan, 2023. High Speed Diesel-262.80 rupees per litre MS Petrol --249.80 rupees per litre Kerosene Oil -189.83 rupees per litre Light Diesel Oil - 187 per litre rupees," Pakistan's Ministry of Finance tweeted.
Ishaq Dar said the oil prices were revised upwards on the direction of PM Shehbaz Sharif, and claimed that petrol prices have not been increased in the last four months, while prices of diesel and Kerosene decreased, Dawn reported.
The decision to jack up oil prices, according to Dar, was made on the recommendations of the oil and gas regulatory authority.
Just as Pakistan helplessly staring up at the deepest ever financial crisis, rupee’s value spiraled down by 34 points against the US dollar beginning Thursday.
This depreciation reportedly is the largest “in both absolute and percentage terms since the new exchange rate system was introduced in 1999.”
This comes after the government lifted cap on the USD-PKR exchange rate in order to avail International Monetary Fund (IMF) loan programme.
IMF loan will come with strings attached requiring the nation to increase fuel and energy prices, raise taxes, which could mean further burden on the people.