ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Minister for Information Murtaza Solangi said on Tuesday the caretaker government was engaging with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) regarding relief measures for electricity consumers and an announcement was expected soon.
Solangi made this revelation after a federal cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar, deliberated on the Ministry of Energy’s recommendations for reducing high electricity bills in Islamabad on Tuesday.
The meeting was convened in response to public demonstrations across the country, with a considerable number of people taking to the streets to protest against the excessively high electricity bills following a significant rise in the national average tariff.
The outrage prompted interim PM Kakar on Saturday to summon an “emergency” meeting for Sunday to discuss the issue, a second round of which was supposed to be held yesterday.
However, a source told Dawn that the caretaker prime minister did not preside over the meeting, and instead, asked the ministers for energy, finance, information and others to hold the meeting and come up with a solution that would be presented before the federal cabinet today.
Meanwhile, interim Information Minister Murtaza Solangi said the energy ministry had finalised a list of proposals to provide relief to the inflation-hit populace, which would be presented in today’s meeting.
The energy ministry confirmed this on X, formerly Twitter, earlier today.
When Solangi was asked about the progress made in the meeting today, he said during an appearance on a TV talk show that decision for providing short-, medium- and long-term relief to consumers were taken.
But, he added, these decisions entailed some implications on which the IMF needs to be taken onboard.
“As we speak, our [interim] Finance Minister Shamshad Akhtar is talking to them. So I hope we will soon be in a position to make the announcement,” he said.
Asked when the announcement would be made, he replied: “It is a matter of few hours. You are aware of the time difference and complications pertaining to talks with the IMF.”
The interim minister said he was expecting that a decision would be reached without any difficulty as the relief measures finalised by the caretaker cabinet would not affect the “two pillars” of primary surplus and circular debt.
Last month, the global lender’s executive board had green-lit a $3 billion nine-month standby arrangement (SBA) for Pakistan in order “to support the authorities’ economic stabilisation programme”.
The board had approved the bailout package for the country for an amount of $2.25bn Special Drawing Rights — reserve funds that the institution credits to the accounts of its member nations — the IMF had said in a statement, adding that this amounted to about $3bn, or 111pc of Pakistan’s quota.
One of the IMF’s requirements under this package was an increase in uniform national tariffs to ensure “further progress on structural reforms, particularly with regard to energy sector viability and state-owned-enterprise governance”.
