Islamabad :
In a joint press conference with Dr. Musaddiq Malik, Khurram Dastgir said that in the light of negotiations with the IMF, apparently creating an atmosphere for elimination of fuel and electricity subsidies. Its better to take tough decisions now rather than after six months
According to media reports, Federal Minister for Energy Khurram Dastgir in a joint press conference with Minister of State for Petroleum Dr. Musaddiq Malik said that global prices of oil, gas and coal will decrease in the short to medium term or for at least 6 months. It is not expected to happen, so the responsibility requires that difficult decisions be made now, rather than having to make the most difficult decisions in six months.
In a joint press conference, Khurram Dastgir and Musaddiq Malik blamed the previous Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government for energy challenges including load shedding, rising revolving loans, and costly energy. Could not manage furnace oil for plants in a timely manner, reduce system losses, improve company performance or pay suppliers.
He said that the poverty situation has worsened in the last three and a half years and according to the latest statistics, 4 out of 6 families are living on a monthly income of 18,000 to 25,000. But do not want to put more burden.
He said that these issues have been finalized to a large extent, the cost of landmines laid by the PTI government will be borne by the government itself, instead of crushing the poor by increasing the prices, We will turn to the rich.
He said that these issues have been settled with the IMF as Imran Khan had reduced the price of petrol by Rs 10 per liter and electricity by Rs 5 per unit. He also froze prices for four months without formal approval and allocation of funds, which would affect the budget by Rs 700-800 billion while the total expenditure of the federal government is Rs 520 billion.
He said that load shedding could not be completely eliminated as the availability of power was made possible during the holidays from May 1 to May 12 on the directive of the Prime Minister.
He said that in the last few months, the price of coal in the world market has gone up from 100 100 per tonne to more than 60 360 per tonne and the PTI government has not made any arrangements for the import of coal.
He admitted that the load shedding on Thursday was increased from one hour to two hours due to the closure of Haveli Bahadur Shah plant of 1,230 MW due to maintenance.
The ministers said that the financial and technical mismanagement and incompetence of PTI could be gauged from the fact that when the new government took over, power plants with a capacity of more than 7,000 MW were shut down out of which 5,850 were. MW power plants were shut down due to fuel shortage while the rest were shut down due to delay in repairs.
He said that the Petroleum Division has arranged 4 LNG cargoes for May and June and 7 to 8 cargoes from Qatar for long term, besides 5 cargoes of Furnace Oil has also been arranged for energy crisis. To be overcome.
The ministers said that due to high temperatures in June, 2 hours of load shedding is being carried out due to over-demand to save fuel stocks, rising prices and curb revolving credit. 20 billion which is now 24 trillion 60 billion rupees.
He said that in the first virtual meeting with the IMF mission, he was assured that the energy, petroleum and finance departments were working in close liaison with the support of broad-based political government for complex financial and energy issues. Not only sound education but his alertness and dedication too are most required.
Dr Musaddiq Malik said that former PTI ministers were raising questions as if they were in opposition, although they themselves were responsible for not managing LNG, furnace oil and coal during their last four years in government. ۔
