AT long last, the Government has started realizing that it is mostly its own actions that trigger price-hike and Monday’s decision of Prime Minister Imran Khan who rejected an upward revision in prices of the POL products for the fortnight is reflective of his concern about the plight of the masses. The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) had proposed a hefty increase of Rs14.07 per liter of petrol, Rs13.61 per liter of high speed diesel, Rs10.79 per liter of kerosene and Rs7.43 per liter of light diesel but the Prime Minister did not approve the proposal declaring that his Government would go to any length to provide relief to the people.
The Government, no doubt, has been struggling hard to cope with the phenomenon of hyperinflation that has made the life of the people miserable. The Prime Minister himself has been holding frequent high level meetings to discuss the issue and a number of measures have also been taken to tackle the situation but all such strategies became a zero sum game in the face of repeated increase in prices of POL products as well as tariff of electricity and gas. It is no secret that such upward revisions have a spiral effect and given the state of weak vigilance, monitoring and enforcement, prices of goods and services once hike never come down again and relief even if provided by some governmental intervention is pocketed by manufacturers and providers of services. Under these circumstances, the Government should think many times before adopting the easy course of jacking up prices of petroleum products and rates of utilities.
It has also been observed that the decision to review oil prices on bi-monthly basis is also playing havoc with the concept of price stability and needs to be revised. The Government should consider the possibility of reviewing prices twice a year or at the most quarterly basis to bring sanity to the price situation. In a related development, the Prime Minister directed the government’s economic team on Monday to suggest out-of-box solutions for reducing the burden of indirect taxes on the people, and at the same time, ensuring a balance between the state revenue and expenditure. We have been hearing since long commitments expressed by successive governments to bring down indirect taxes but no tangible progress has so far been made towards this cherished goal. To begin with, the Government should either completely withdraw or reduce a multitude of taxes on petroleum products and electricity bills.
