ISLAMABAD: The federal government has reduced the price of petrol by Rs1.54 and diesel by Rs3 after a ‘change in the global oil prices”.
A notification regarding the change in the fuel prices will also issued by the Petroleum Division after the finance minister announced a change in the prices of the petroleum products.
Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, Federal Finance Minister Hammad Azhar said: “The price of petrol will be slashed by Rs1.5 per litre while the price of diesel will be slashed by Rs3 per litre. We took this decision because now, we have some room due to a change in prices at the international market,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) in its meeting chaired by Finance Minister Hammad Azhar has also allowed the import of yarn and sugar from India. During the press conference, the minister outlined the trade and commerce plan of the ministry, including reopening trade with India particularly for sugar and cotton yarn industries.
“We have allowed the import of sugar but in the rest of the world too, sugar prices are high because of which imports are not possible. But in our neighbouring country — India — the prices of sugar are much less as compared to Pakistan so we have decided to reopen sugar trade with India up to 0.5 million tonnes for the private sector,” he said.
Concerning the import of yarn from India, the Azhar said that Pakistani textile exports had increased during the pandemic but the yarn supply fell short due to the low crop yield last year. “The difference [in prices] affects the SMEs (small and medium enterprises. Big industry can buy it from Egypt or other countries,” he elaborated.
Azhar said that the ECC decided to reduce the prices of petrol and diesel due to the international market fluctuation.
The minister further informed that the ECC also fixed the minimum support price for wheat for Rs1,800 per 40kg which would be a “relief for our farmer brothers”.
Talking about the national economy, the minister said that the incumbent government “inherited the biggest current account deficit in [Pakistan’s] history and had converted it into a surplus”.
“Since our government came, if we add swaps, there has been an increase of $9bn of which $6-7bn swaps were cleared. This is a very big achievement,” the minister told the media.
