The government Thursday announced a whooping increase of Rs30 per lire in the prices of petroleum products, reported 24NewsHd TV channel.
Federal Finance Minister announced this while addressing a press conference saying it was indispensable for the government to put some burden on the people.
The finance minister held the press conference a day after a meeting between Pakistani officials and International Monetary Fund (IMF) that could not reach a staff-level agreement.
The new per litre price of petrol, diesel, kerosene oil and light diesel is Rs179.86, Rs174.15, Rs155.56, and Rs148.31respectiviely.
The increase in the price of petroleum products would result in inflation, he said stressing that the government has no option other than taking this step.
Ismail said the ex-PM went against the IMF deal and announced subsidies on petroleum products when his government's tenure was coming to an end.
"We are all the owners of a country. How can we afford such subsidies that are costing three times more than running the everyday affairs of the governments,"
The minister said it was an injustice to the lower-income segment of the society that the people who own cars, industries, and generators, are getting subsidies.
Still, the government would be paying about Rs56.71 per litre subsidy on HSD, Rs37.84 on LDO, Rs21.83 on petrol and Rs17.02 on kerosene.
"Indeed, this is the failure of the government that inflation is rising but we have provided subsidies on commodities at utility stores and are making sugar available at a lesser cost than Imran Khan's government," he said.
Ismail said increasing the price of petroleum products by Rs30 was not an easy decision for Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, but vowed that the incumbent government would take steps to safeguard the economy.
The finance minister stressed that the present government would present the fiscal budget for FY2022-2023 and ruled out the formation of a caretaker government, noting that the current set-up would complete its tenure.