Sherry Rehman blasts govt for hiking petrol prices thrice in just 31 days

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) parliamentary leader of the Senate, Sherry Rehman, Monday severely criticised the federal government for increasing prices of petroleum products.

She said despite a huge dip in international oil prices, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government had, once again, increased petrol prices by 2.5-4.6% for the third time in 31 days. “Instead of providing relief to people in times of economic uncertainty and extreme inflation, the PTI government dropped another petrol bomb," she said while commenting on low international oil prices amid the COVID-19 crisis.

The PPP leader said today, price of crude oil is around $55. “During the PPP government, international crude oil was +$140, yet the situation was nowhere close to what it is now,” she said.

She said the recent petrol inquiry report had estimated Rs250 billion worth of oil smuggling from Iran and numerous other controversial operations. “We’ve had no shortage of scams; wheat, sugar, LNG and now the oil scam. All multi-billion dollars scams reflect incompetence, poor decision making and looting,” added the Senator.

Sherry said this is the 5th increase in petrol prices in 9 weeks. It is shocking that the PTI government had almost doubled its reliance on petroleum levy as a source of revenue – from Rs260b of last year to Rs450 billion budgeted for this fiscal year. “All burden is now being passed on to masses,” she added.

She said our industries were already crippled due to the recent hike in gas prices. Yesterday, the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FPCCI) rejected the PTI government’s petrol bomb. Moreover, Pakistan’s struggling textile industry contributes 50-60% to the country’s export, but has already lost its global textile share by 23%.

“This is alarming considering that we are the 5th largest cotton producer in the world,” she said. Highlighting the deteriorating state of economy, Senator Sherry Rehman said inflation was already highest in the region, public debt was breaking all previous records and the circular debt challenge was becoming bigger by the day. She said Pakistan’s public debt was piling up at an alarming rate of Rs13.2 billion per day under the PTI government. “A whopping Rs11.6 trillion has been added since 2018. The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) data puts the public debt figure at Rs35.8 trillion,” she said.

The PPP vice president said the PTI government had given nothing to the country except for extreme inflation and high unemployment in the past two-and-a-half years. “The poor and vulnerable will be hit hard by this petrol price bomb. The PPP rejects this move,” she added.