No country selling petrol cheaper than its cost: Shahid

ISLAMABAD: PMLN leader Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Friday claimed that no country in the world is selling petrol cheaper than its original cost.

Addressing a press conference along with former finance minister Miftah Ismail, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi Abbasi said the incumbent government was facing problems due to the former government’s mismanagement as they had set the price of petrol at Rs149, which burdened the national exchequer.

Owing to the PTI government’s policy of keeping the petroleum products’ rates fixed, the remaining Rs35 billion was paid through the national exchequer. “If the rates are kept the same till June, the government will have to pay Rs240 billion through its own resources [...] the rates were fixed by PTI to garner cheap publicity,” he said, while lashing out at the Imran Khan-led government’s to keep the rates fixed till the next budget.

Had PM Shehbaz accepted Ogra’s summary, the rate of petrol would be at Rs265 and diesel Rs235, Abbasi said and noted that the previous government had fixed the rates despite promising the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that they would hike them.