While the Prime Minister was careful to come on national television and address the nation to announced what he characterized as the biggest welfare package in history, the petrol price hike that came to the very next day was quietly rolled out, as if the PM did not know about it. This attempt at disingenuousness fooled no one, but it was still a disappointment. The PM had hinted at what was going to happen in his address when he warned the nation that there were petrol prices increases ahead. However, no one expected the unseemly haste with which that particular promise was implemented. The government’s reticence about the hike being the highest in the country’s history, and the increase being more than the petrol rate itself in living memory, is also noticeable.
That reticence may be understandable, but it does not take away from the effect that the fuel price hike will have on the very items that are to be subsidized. The subsidy is supposed to be given on the price of the items, and if the items’ prices go up, they are bound to because of greater transport costs, the government will end up paying higher amounts to subsidize the same amounts of goods. The effects of price hike on electricity tariffs will be added to the costs of diesel as an agricultural input. The effect will occur on the wheat crop, which is being planted. The argument proffered by the government is that fuel is more expensive in other countries of the region.
That has led the pricing mechanism to be examined, with the Lahore High Court demanding that it be presented to it. The government appears to be still working on meeting IMF demands, even though the subsidy offered is anathema to it. Still, the increase that OGRA demanded, and which the PM contemptuously rejected, has come to pass, and that too not at the fortnightly review but in its middle third. World prices are headed upwards, but such sudden movements give the impression of a government out of control.
