Pakistan FinMin warns of default if fuel subsidies not abolished

Pakistan will default if the government does not abolish the subsidies on petroleum products, Finance Minister Miftah Ismail has said, warning that the cash-strapped country's economy could be in a similar position as that of Sri Lanka if tough decisions were not taken. 

Ismail claimed that the government was still giving Rs 19 subsidy on petrol and Rs 53 subsidy on diesel, adding that Sri Lanka also gave subsidies to its public and it, eventually, defaulted. 

Speaking during Geo News' programme “Capital Talk” on Monday night, Finance Minister Ismail said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has insisted on abolishing the subsidies on petroleum products.

The finance minister said if the price of petrol and electricity is not increased, then the country will default.

To save power, WFH on Fridays in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa

Pakistan’s third-most populous province has decided to have a work-from-home policy on Fridays for its employees, in the latest among a raft of decisions to save energy and avoid nationwide blackouts.

The step has been announced to save fuel and electricity, Taimur Khan Jhagra, the finance minister of the northwest Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, said in a video post on Twitter. The measure follows the federal government’s decision earlier this month of ending Saturday as a work-day and cutting the volume of fuel by 40 per cent allocated to its employees (Bloomberg).