Inflation rate will soar to 40pc, claims Tarin
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf senior leader and former Federal Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin has said that the next month’s utility bills with upward revised rates will push the inflation rate to 40 percent. While addressing a press conference here on Saturday, he said that this government claimed that the inflation rate will be around 11.5 percent while the State Bank of Pakistan says it will be between 16 and 18 percent by the end of this year, but at present, the inflation rate is at 33 percent. “The current government has created miseries for the people,” he added.
Referring to Federal Finance Minister Miftah Ismail’s press conference in which he said that the PTI left the economy in shambles, he said that why he had not read the economic survey that reflected the PTI’s achievements. “It revealed that Pakistan witnessed record growth in 17 years while agriculture sector showed a growth of 4.4 percent, industrial sector 7.4 percent, and growth was also witnessed in other sectors. We achieved record revenue collection, as well as, received record remittances. Who are they fooling; this government has burdened the country with Rs 3 trillion debts,” he added.
Tarin said that the PTI government collected Rs 1400 billion in revenue last year, and Miftah kept the same revenue target with supertax. He dared Miftah to compete with them on economic performance and show better economic performance than the PTI’s.
He accused the government of deceiving the people through economic jugglery, but they will not be fooled by it. He averred that what this government has done; “when we left the government, the dollar was at Rs 186, which climbed to Rs 211 in their tenure”. Even the agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had no positive impact on the rupee. Moreover, this government was responsible for the decline in the stock market, he added
The former Finance Minister lambasted the government for hiking the fuel prices to unimaginable limits. “This government put more financial burden on the common men by increasing the fuel prices between Rs 100 and Rs 130. And now on the pretext of declining oil prices in the international market, it just passed on benefit of Rs 18 per litre. This act was just an election gimmick; we know that after the elections the prices will be reversed on August 1. This government has agreed with the IMF to impose a petroleum levy worth Rs 855 billion, meaning Rs 50 per litre,” he added.
