The finance minister issued a statement on Wednesday that a summary had been sent to the Prime Minister’s office for approval for the reduction in oil prices. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has decided to reduce the prices of petroleum products owing to the decrease in the price of crude oil in the international market. He chaired a meeting of the officials concerned where he directed the federal ministries and departments to chalk out a summary for the price cut so that the decrease in global oil price can be transmitted to the local consumer and the latter could benefit from it truly.
With this, the Shehbaz administration is “marketing” such a move as a gift by the prime minister to his people on account of Eidul Azha, where the government consciously sacrifices a large share of revenue for the benefit of its people. This is what the historic day symbolizes and thus the government is toiling to give relief to the people of Pakistan. The essence of this day is empathy and sacrifice, and such a move may give relief to the people for some days at least but there is something else in the air which pushes the average citizen to think skeptically.
The government will have to kowtow to the demands of the International Monetary Fund eventually as it is on verge of a an economic meltdown, and therefore, such a move by the incumbent government, and that too days before the July 17 by elections, signals only one possible explanation and that is that this is a move by the ruling political elite to benefit no one else but those in power as they fear they might have lost some votes because of the galloping inflation caused by the rising oil prices.
During the past 45 days, the government has increased the oil price by almost Rs100. The local consumers expect an increase soon, owing to the economic ailments being felt throughout the country and the disastrous effects of such an event as seen in Sri Lanka.
If it is the case that the government is in a fiscal stranglehold and is short of revenues for its day-to-day operations, and to pay for its necessary imports, it should not go for such a price-cut. These difficult decisions are a need of the hour and “the ship is sailing through the storm” but if it tries to benefit politically at the cost of a worsening national economy, those at the helm of affairs would then only give currency to the generally perceived notion that they are mere politicians and not statesmen.
