Good of the government to work towards a likely reduction of Rs 5.50 per litre in petrol prices “in the public interest”. But what exactly is the public supposed to make of this decision considering the recent repeated hikes? Surely it’s not that the PM will never let petrol prices rise “in the public interest”; not when there’s little to suggest that the rush in Brent crude will subside anytime soon or that the government has come up with a foolproof plan to stabilise prices. And if the burden will not be passed onto the people it will have to be endured by the government, which will pressure public finances and bloat the deficit, which will eventually have to be funded by the people, especially as long as the IMF program lasts. So what, eventually, is achieved by all this and in whose interest?
There’s also something to be said about a policy decision, however temporary, that runs completely counter to IMF requirements just when a federal minister has claimed that had Pakistan not entered the programme, petrol would have long crossed Rs 1200 mark. More pertinent is the apparent willingness to bend over backwards to accommodate lender’s demands, even those that are not “in the public interest” by any stretch of the imagination. That begs the very obvious questions of who’ll have egg on the face if the Fund comes up with further revocation of subsidies and Islamabad is forced to raise prices yet again?
Most likely the PM’s reaction was helped, if not triggered, by an uproar over the recent rounds of upward revisions at a time when the public’s wrath is ready to spill into the streets. But if it was done to avoid bad press at a very sensitive time, it was more to protect the interest of the government than the people. The least the government can do is ensure greater transparency in the handling of those aspects of the economy that have a direct impact on the common man. That way they will at least be spared the uncertainty that comes with the failure of the ruling party to keep its promises time and again.
Right now, nobody expects the uncertainty to settle anytime soon. That the PM would want to intervene and protect the economy from sudden price shocks, regardless of whether for his own sake or somebody else’s, is natural as well as appreciated. But since good intentions achieve little in terms of political mileage and hardly anything at all for people struggling to make ends meet, a far better way to handle this would be to tell it like it is, especially how much people would have to tighten their belts. Presenting a rosy picture does not mean that they wouldn’t have to do it anyway. But this way there will be no more false hope and promises. *