Minister of State for Finance and Revenue Dr. Aisha Ghous Pasha said that it is wrong to politicize economic decision making. The country needs a charter of economy to get out of economic difficulties. The charter would be a set of economic decisions that would be implemented in the country no matter which political party is in the office. She said it while responding to a call attention notice at the Senate Session today. She said that just a day ago the Finance Minister of the previous Government had vehemently argued on floor of Senate that the present government needed to take tough economic decisions as it was extremely important to put the IMF programme back on track. However, the opposition leaders have taken a U-turn and today they are questioning the decision of the Government to increase petroleum prices. They are doing this despite knowing that it is a step in the right direction. She further added that the outgoing government had signed on a much bigger increase in petroleum products as it had promised IMF to levy sales tax @ 17% and Petroleum Development Levy @ Rs.30 per liter. It, however, reneged on those promises and pushed the country into the current crisis. The coalition Government has only passed on the actual price of petroleum and no taxes have been levied on it to date. 80% of the Subsidy on petroleum products is used by the rich. Opposition senators are raising hue and cry as they belong to rich classes and want their subsidy to be restored. Further, the Government has initiated a targeted subsidy scheme under which 14 million households (84 million citizens) will receive a support of Rs.2,000 per month. This will off-set the impact of increase in petroleum prices and price of necessary food items. The Minister of State for Finance and Revenue shared that as the previous government was giving unnecessary subsidies and was freezing the prices of petrol and electricity artificially, the whole burden of these inefficient measures fell on the shoulders of the present government. These subsidy-driven measures related to prices of petroleum and electricity was undertaken irrespective of the fact that previous government had pledged to IMF otherwise. During the address, the Minister of State for Finance and Revenue while sharing her view on the recent price hike due to rising petrol and electricity prices in the country stated that the present government is aware of the increased burden on the general masses of the country due to increased inflationary tendencies. However, at this point of time, increasing the price of petroleum was unavoidable and is in the best interest of the country. It will not help correct the aggregate demand but will also reduce pressure on foreign exchange. She urged the opposition to work with the Government and help the country overcome its economic problems rather than spreading wrong information among the masses.
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