Miftah Ismail says no to subsidies on petroleum products

ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Miftah Ismail on Sunday said that following the condition of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Pakistan has arranged to receive $4 billion from friendly nations; however, the government cannot afford to subsidise petroleum products.

“The finance ministry will not impose any more taxes and levies on petroleum products, but the government could not bear any more losses by providing subsidies,” the minister said, responding to a question in Geo News programme "Naya Pakistan" during which he was asked if the government was planning to reduce the prices of petrol following rupee’s growing strength against the dollar.

"The IMF has set a condition for us to seek $4 billion worth of loans from somewhere else first before seeking help from the global money lender," he stated, adding that the country has successfully managed to get the required loan from some friendly countries.

"We will sign the letter of intent and send it to the IMF by tomorrow," he said, informing the host about the document that Pakistan received this week.

When responding to another question during the show, Ismail said that all political parties should sit together and hold talks related to the "charter of economy".

He also commented on about the imposition of fixed tax on shops and said that he "made a mistake to slap an Rs3,000 tax on small shops. The minister remarked that the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) had imposed a tax worth Rs6,000 instead of Rs3,000.

Responding to PTI chief Imran Khan's comparison of Pakistan's economy with that of India, he stated that the neighbouring state had been building institutes since the 1950s while people in Pakistan were playing gillidanda.

"We have fake factories here to manufacture professors, we hardly paid attention to the country's education sector or its burgeoning population, yet [the PTI] is here to raise the slogans of true freedom. The same party has left behind a deficit of $48 billion," he said.