Bracing for high inflation?
Surely some sort of thought would have gone into inflating gas prices, without due notification, for domestic consumers. And till a thorough explanation reaches the people, they will naturally assume that somebody has tried to be smart enough to plug revenue holes by such unorthodox, indeed corrupt, practices. But now that the matter has reached the prime minister – who has ordered an inquiry – hopefully people will know just why they are being treated in this manner; and just what to expect from the multi-tier gas tax formula which the finance minister assured would put no extra pressure on domestic consumers.
Last time gas was a problem the prime minister simply rolled the top heads in the gas companies. Perhaps this time the probe will be more thorough. But it’s not just gas that is a problem. The way things are going ordinary people should brace themselves for continuously rising prices for the rest of the ongoing fiscal at least. It’s for a reason that the state bank was forced to increase the interest rate yet again; at the cost of a contractionary monetary policy ridiculing the government’s incentivising, expansionist posturing.
What is more, the minister of state for revenue let slip out the other day what the finance minister and prime minister have been denying all along. Despite all the ad hoc measures, especially arranging bailout funds from friendly countries, the fiscal position has not eased and the deficit target, which the government raised to 5.1pc of GDP, will almost certainly be missed. And just how much more lenient do they expect the IMF to be now that they have just above 8b in reserves as opposed to just under 8b when they took over? The ruling party must accept that their unique way of turning around the economy hasn’t quite worked out. And the sooner they hit the reset button the better for everybody, especially the ordinary Joe about to be hit by yet more inflation for no fault of his own.
