Finance Minister Miftah Ismail has said that Pakistan would default if the government would not withdraw the subsidies on petroleum products.

“The lawmakers are angry with me on the proposals to increase the price but I have no other option and if they do not take action then the country will default,” Ismail said while addressing a post-budget conference organized by The News and Business Recorder in Islamabad on Monday.

“Pakistan’s economic situation has never been so bad in the past as it is facing now,” he said. It would take two to three months for the incumbent government to control inflation, he added.

The finance czar said that the incumbent government was facing a circular debt of Rs. 2,500 billion and NEPRA was taking five months old price, adding that instead of giving a subsidy of Rs 1,100 billion to the energy sector the government was still not able to get out of the current economic crisis.

“We are bringing shopkeepers into the tax net,” he said adding that many people had complained about the quality of the flour.

Ismail said that the prices of oil were increasing in the international market while the rising cost of coal had also increased the cost of production of electricity.

Hinting at an increase in the price of gas, he said that the gas departments have been facing a deficit as the circular debt of the gas has reached Rs1,500 billion.

The minister said that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif was not happy with the increase in the prices of petroleum products.