With an International Monetary Fund agreement finally in the books, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar announced that some additional burden on the public could be expected in coming months.
Dar said that the electricity tariff would be rebased whose cost will affect ordinary consumers, adding that the rebasing will take effect in July. He also said that although the cap for the petroleum levy had been set at Rs60, it was likely to stay at Rs55 for the new fiscal year.
The government has already made massive increases in the price consumers have to pay for electricity and gas over its short tenure.
In terms of electricity, the government has put an additional burden of Rs1,300 billion on the public since coming to power last April.
A hike of Rs11.30 has been made in the per unit cost of electricity. Out of this, the tariff was increased by Rs7.91 per unit while consumers had to pay Rs3.39 for every unit consumed as additional surcharge.
Sources said that the base tariff could be increased by Rs3 to 5, but final decision on the matter was yet to be taken.
The price of gas has also been increased by 112% in the PDM-led government’s tenure already. Sources said that the Oil And Gas Regulatory Authority is planning to raise the cost by almost 50%.
