The Pakistan Economy Watch (PEW) President Dr. Murtaza Mughal said on Sunday that the government’s decision to allow marketing companies to fix retail prices of major oil products is against the national interests.
He said that the government had been extracting too much from the masses through petroleum levy and General Sales Tax (GST) for which it was being criticized on every forum.
He added that the government was diverting public anger through various tactics while keeping its income unchanged which was a major factor behind the rise in inflation in the country.
He also said that the government’s decision to restrict the role of the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) would have a very negative affect as the private sector would bleed the masses white for profits.
Dr. Murtaza said that the total deregulation of pricing mechanism with weekly price revision would make it difficult to monitor the companies and would regular supplies to the consumers in remote areas of the country would be cut down.
He said that the private sector had already started hoarding and black-marketing petroleum products after oil prices were announced on fortnightly basis. He added that the announcement of weekly price lists would give more power to the companies to manipulate the masses. He said that the new pricing mechanism would not absolve the government completely of its responsibility and it should allow Ogra to continuously monitor prices at retail outlets and direct Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) to thwart any possible collusion among the players.
According to him, the masses would face unreasonable hikes if the oil companies were not made to take prior approval from the Ministry of Petroleum and the Ministry of Finance as companies would increase pand decrease oil prices at will.