FAISALABAD – Another cruel increase in petroleum prices has tightened the noose around the poverty-stricken people who are already at the brink of collapse and nobody can imagine what is going to happen in this country. People from all walks of life have condemned the increase in petroleum prices. A consumer outside a petrol station of Faisalabad said it is like pulling away the clothes from our bodies. The man dressed in cheap but nice clothes who seemed to be an office clerk is, in fact, a college professor who wishes to remain anonymous. “The communism of Russia in the last century preached the public every now and then to tighten their belts, but at the end of the day there were no trousers let alone the belts to tighten them. This is exactly what is going to happen in Pakistan,” he said.
Different scenes at different petrol stations, but the reaction was the same; furious remarks against the ruling elite. “They increase the petrol prices just to increase indirect taxes to improve their revenue generation,” said a white-bearded man at the driving seat of an old-model car. The justification is as stupid as the decision itself,” he complained. “If they want to strengthen the national exchequer, they must broaden the tax net by catching the big fish,” he proposed. “In other countries, the rich pay the taxes so that their government can look after the poor, but in Pakistan, on the contrary, it is the poor that are squeezed to finance the luxuries of the rich,” he said.
A shopkeeper protested that the plight of the masses becomes more dreadful after a new increase in the petroleum prices. “The general perception is that an ocean of price hike has immersed their endurance as well as their purchasing power,” he said.
The energy crisis has put a huge question mark on Pakistan’s economic and political future. After the merciless increase in electricity tariff rates, LPG and CNG prices, the recent increase is being considered as the last straw on a camel’s back to break his spine. There has been an overnight flood of price hike that has submerged every initiative under the heavy spell of inflation. The surge in petrol prices always pushes the whole consumer goods and services to new heights, leaving the daily breadwinners poorer than yesterday.
To rob the consumers, the city petrol pumps stopped the sale of petrol on Thursday for the imminent price increase. “The agents know very well that when they will display the ‘out of stock’ banner on their outlets, the consumers wiill be psychologically inclined to pay the higher price to get their vehicles refilled,” says a distraught motorcyclist. “I visited all the stations in the area on Thursday evening, but they said they were unable to fuel. This is a business trick to raise the price,” he remarked. There are reports that rickshaws, taxis, vans and all other local transport stakeholders have arbitrarily increased the fares overnight at almost all traffic routes. “The matter is not that the increase is passed to public; they, under the pretext of petrol prices, have increased substantial amount of money in terms of fares.
There is no law to protect the consumers from the unjust fare increase by the local transporters,” said another passenger at a bus stop. An analyst said, “The government is levying more than Rs 40 per litre taxes and duties on petrol. If the government sells petrol on ‘no profit no loss basis’, it will cost less than Rs 50 per litre to the public. “Take the example of NATO oil supplies to Afghanistan by our government which is charging little more than Rs 40 per litre from them,” he said. A local petrol pump owner who looked worried said, “This price mechanism is beyond our control. We are charging higher prices because we purchased at the higher price. Our commission is unchanged; these are the international market forces that are responsible for it,” he argued. “We have to bear the extra expenses to stay in business,” he protested. “Oil price surge is an international phenomenon triggered by the uprising movements in the Arab region that is the biggest exporter of oil,” he said.
“We voted for the PPP government thinking that it will surely address the problems of the poor, but over the last three years price hikes have broken all records,” said an angry PPP activist. A farmer who was very furious at Rs. 11/litre increase of diesel said, “The government is determined to destroy agriculture. It is ironical that the prices of diesel, fertilizers, seeds and all agriculture paraphernalia have a noted increase of 50 percent, but the government has announced to freeze the wheat prices at two years’ old level.” How will we survive in this situation?” he questioned. An office clerk working in a private company said, “I used to go to office by van paying Rs 30 for daily excursions that cost me Rs 900 per month. I can no longer manage it anymore in my salary of Rs 8,000,” he said. “I have decided to purchase a bicycle for my daily trips that will cost me more than Rs 1,000 now,” he said.
The grocery shops in the city have also increased their retail prices, saying that transportation charges from Sabzi Mandi to their outlets have increased overnight.
The petroleum price surge is likely to bring more bad news in the coming days from all sectors of production and local services who have announced to hold meetings to adjust the prices of their products and services to keep themselves in line with the recent market adjustments.
