Rs100 per litre fuel subsidy for bike owners

LAHORE: State Minister for Petroleum Musadik Malik Monday said motorcyclists would get a relief of Rs100 per litre of petrol instead of Rs50.

Addressing a press conference at the PMLN office in Model Town, he said the price of petrol had been reduced for motorcyclists and small cars and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had given only six weeks to implement this decision.

He said Shehbaz Sharif had directed the ministry that the difference between the petrol prices should be at least Rs100 per litre.

Musadik said former prime minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif had directed Shehbaz Sharif that the petrol price for the poor should be reduced.

The minister said he will make petrol cheaper for the poor and put the money of the rich in the pockets of the poor. He further said the owners of big vehicles will pay the higher price of petrol. Answering a question, he said out of 22 crore population, 21 crore were poor.

He said the government had separated gas tariff for the rich and the poor and this decision will soon be implemented and will continue as long as the coalition government remained in power.

“There are two Pakistans – one is the powerful and the other is the Pakistan of the poor and the weak,” he said and maintained that in one Pakistan, the poor got jail for stealing bread while in the other Pakistan a criminal who was called for appearance in courts said he was above the law.

He said Imran Khan lived in a 400 kanal house in Banigala and was asking his workers to attack the police and law enforcing agencies. He further said Imran Khan didn’t follow the Constitution as well as law of the land and believed that he was above all.

Musadik said the government stood with the poor and every possible relief will be given to them. He said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was also monitoring the Ramazan package as well as the recently initiated subsidized petrol availability for the poor.

Musadik said people living in posh areas such as Gulberg and Clifton also had respect but the government will provide cheap gas to the poor. He said those who travel with a motorcade of security vehicles and masked bodyguards will have to pay more petrol price than a common citizen who was traveling on a motorcycle or on a small car.

He said another alleged audio of former chief justice Saqib Nisar had surfaced. The minister said the former chief justice wrote judgments in which a daughter was dragged to jail in front of her father.

Continuing his criticism of the former chief justice, the PMLN leader said a person who kept calling himself chief justice could not respect his chair. He said Saqib Nisar was using words ‘slap the woman’ and ‘Thok Do’. He said the audio should be investigated and if the tape was original, then a case should be registered.

Answering a question, he said the government had announced Ramazan package and strict notice will be taken of abuse of free flour. Answering another question, he said Imran Khan has increased the auction price after taking gifts from Toshakhana.

He said no country was upset over the sale of gifts of Toshakhana and suggested that all the Toshakhana gifts should be auctioned. Replying to a question, he said the gas circular debt, which went up to Rs1700 billion had been cleared and the government was working on LNG. He said it was not possible to reverse the lower gas tariff once announced by the government.

Answering a question, he said if anyone from the PMLN took advantage of Toshakhana, he had to answer. The recipient of gift from Toshakhana has to pay the full amount, Musadik announced.

Talking about the formula of giving subsidized petrol, he said a motorcyclist could get two to three liters of petrol per day and could get 21 litre a month while a small car owner will get 30 liter of petrol in one month. He said that the motorcyclist or a small car owner will be registered through CNIC, mobile number and the vehicle registration. He will send a message on a particular number and will get a code. On petrol pump, he will give the pin code and his CNIC will be scanned and he will be able to get information as how much he has consumed fuel and how much he can get.

He said that the petrol price will be increased by Rs50 per litre for the rich and the poor will get subsidised petrol. He said that an escrow account will be opened in a bank and Rs50 per litre increased price will be deposited in that account and the poor segment will be given subsidy from that account.

He said a text message will be sent to the owners of motorcycles and small cars and the government was synchronizing the data with the help of Nadra.

About a question related to the Russian oil, the minister said he had never said that Russian oil will come in March. Musadik said he had said that orders for the Russian oil would be placed in April. He said the government was negotiating the purchase of oil from Russia. To another question, he said the government had no objection to getting cheap oil from Iran. He said all possible ways to get cheap petrol without getting sanctions will be explored by the government. “We will take our decisions and will not allow anyone to dictate us,” he concluded.