The people of Pakistan will be hit by an inflation drone on July 1st, with the government planning to impose a massive gas tariff hike of 15-100%, affecting all categories of consumers on the first day of the new fiscal year 2011-12.

The textile sector, however, is expected to be spared the rod in the long run.
According to sources in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources, the economic coordination committee meeting, scheduled for today (Thursday), will approve the increase in gas tariff by 15 percent for domestic consumers and 100 percent for the fertiliser industry.

The gas tariff for commercial consumers will also be increased by 15 percent, which will be higher than the tariff for the industrial and power sector. Sources said the textile sector would be treated as a special category and in future a special tariff will be extended to this sector, which has played a pivotal role in promoting exports.

But while textile may have it good, the same will not be the case for CNG users. “The CNG gas price which currently stands at 45 percent of the petrol price will be jacked up to 65 percent of the petrol price,” the source said. The gas tariff for the power sector and the general industrial sector (textile industry), other than fertilisers, will be the same. “Earlier, the power sector had three kinds of tariff and the industrial sector had one tariff, but now it would be a uniform tariff for both sectors”, the source said.