Pakistan’s Finance Minister Miftah Ismail has said accused former Prime Minister Imran Khan of lying to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the prices of petrol and diesel.
Ismail said former Khan’s government had promised the IMF to impose a 17 per cent general sales tax (GST) and 30 PKR levy on petrol and diesel prices, reports Samaa TV.
“They (the PTI government) promised the IMF it won’t bear the loss on petrol and diesel prices. But today, (the country) is losing 70 PKR on diesel.”
According to the commitments made by the PTI government to the IMF, the price of petrol should have been 295 PKR and not 150 PKR, Samaa TV quoted Islmail as saying.
“They used to promise something to the IMF and then say something completely different in Pakistan.”
He termed these commitments as “landmines left by the PTI government”.
Ismail said the load shedding happening in Pakistan these days is due to the “incompetence” of the previous government.
He added that power houses with 7500 MW capacity were shut when the previous government ended.
“Power houses with 5500 MW capacity were closed because they didn’t have any furnace oil or gas. 2000 MW power houses were shut because their maintenance was not done on time and had no spare parts,” said Ismail.
The Finance Minister blamed the PTI government of excessive borrowing, making a record of fastest spiking inflation and leaving record trade deficits.