Tarin urges govt to hold National Price Monitoring Committee meeting

Former Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin on Monday slammed the incumbent government of Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz (PML-N) over its inability to conduct the National Price Monitoring Committee meeting on a weekly basis.

Taking to Twitter, Senator Tarin said, “I used to hold weekly price monitoring and control committee meetings to ensure timely actions on prices of local commodities.”

The former finance minister leader said that apart from imported goods his government had brought down the prices of local items. “Unfortunately, not a single meeting has been held by the PDM (Pakistan Democratic Movement) government,” said Tarin while urging current Finance Minister Miftah Ismail to monitor the situation.

On Sunday, Tarin had criticised Ismail for not laying out an economic policy. “There is no policy direction in today's presser of Miftah Ismail,” said Tarin, adding that this will create further uncertainty in the market.

“They are now the government and the market wants to see a clear economic direction from them. We have been saying, the only solution is immediate elections,” he said.

Addressing a press conference, Ismail said that the government has decided not to increase the petroleum prices at this point in time but did not rule out adjustment in days ahead owing to sharp increase in crude oil prices in the international market, and for revival of International Monetary Fund (IMF) programme.

POL products’ prices will not be raised: finance minister

He said that as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif believes the people cannot be further burdened at this point in time, today he would not increase the price, so there is no need to form long queues at petrol stations.

He however, made it clear that adjustment in petroleum prices would be inevitable in days ahead because government was providing Rs120 billion monthly subsidy and there is no sign of reduction in the crude oil prices in the international market.