Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday directed to maintain the gas tariff for next few months in order to provide relief to the consumers.
Chairing a review meeting on the prices of flour, sugar and other essential commodities, the prime minister called for intensifying efforts to facilitate the common man, particularly belonging to the lower class.
Federal ministers including Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar, Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, Hammad Azhar, Syed Fakhr-e-Imam, Omar Ayub and Asad Umar; special assistants Nadeem Babar, Dr Waqar Masood and Tabish Gohar, former finance minister Shaukat Tareen, federal secretaries and senior officials attended the meeting. The meeting discussed issues regarding stability of the prices of essential commodities, particularly of flour, and the measures to reduce the prices of sugar, gas and petrol.
The prime minister was given a briefing on the prices of petroleum products in international market. PM’s Special Assistant on Petroleum Nadeem Babar mentioned that the gas prices were raised on July 1, 2019, and now the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) had again recommended six to seven percent increase in its tariff.
The prime minister directed his economic team to ensure stability of the flour prices till the government introduced the Targeted Subsidy Scheme. He said a comprehensive programme was under consideration for provision of direct subsidy on flour to the poor people. The subsidy was aimed at providing financial relief to the weaker sections.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Imran Khan was told on Friday that electricity consumers would benefit from reduction of around Rs 325 billion in the circular debt due to the target set for next two years to check power sector losses and improve receipts.
He was presiding over a meeting regarding electricity prices, with special focus on the reduction of circular debt.
The prime minister was briefed about the proposed strategy to check electricity prices as well as reducing the circular debt. The meeting was told that as a result of the present government’s efforts, decreasing trend in technical and non-technical losses was witnessed and improvement in the receipts of electricity bills was also recorded. It was further told that a strategy had also been formulated to further check transmission and distribution losses.
The prime minister, in his remarks on the occasion, said as the previous governments, besides establishing most expensive power projects, also neglected the aspect of curbing transmission and distribution losses as well as improving flaws in the system, and its burden was being faced by people.
