2011-01-31

Petroleum prices kept unchanged

An employee fills the tank of motorcyclists at a fuel station in Karachi.—AFP photo

ISLAMABAD: Bowing to strong opposition from almost all political parties, the government decided on Monday not to increase the prices of petroleum products from Feb 1.

A parliamentary committee, headed by Petroleum Minister Syed Naveed Qamar and comprising representatives of the PML-N, PML-Q, ANP and MQM, failed to reach unanimity on raising the prices of petroleum products.

The government will now have to absorb an impact of about Rs13 billion by maintaining the prices at the level of Oct 31 last year despite a rise in international oil prices.

Meanwhile, the government and the PML-N forwarded to the National Assembly speaker on Monday names from the both houses of parliament for a 12-member committee to work out a procedure for selection of an independent chief election commissioner and members of the Election Commission.

After a third round of discussions on PML-N's 10-point agenda, the two sides indicated that a consensus had been reached on laws for across-the-board accountability, including that of army generals and judges.

At a joint news conference with PML-N leader Ishaq Dar, Law Minister Babar Awan said both the parties had finalised the names of four members from the government side and four from the opposition in the National Assembly and two each from the Senate to prepare the procedure and criteria for the appointment of an independent chief election commissioner and members of the Election Commission.

He said the list had reached the NA speaker who would notify the constitution of the committee.

Mr Awan said the government had already notified the formation of a judicial commission headed by former Supreme Court judge Sardar Raza Khan to probe into the sugar scam.

Mr Ishaq Dar said the commission would complete its investigation in 45 days and submit a report with recommendations and identifying those responsible for sugar price manipulations.

Asked why had the parliamentary committee not been able so far to make progress on immediate economic challenges and remained focused more on political issues like accountability and election commission, he said the full parliamentary committee would have detailed discussions on corruption, restructuring of state enterprises and austerity measures.

He said the finance minister had agreed to come up with recommendations for containing the fiscal deficit and the PML-N team would submit its proposals accordingly to the parliamentary committee in its next meeting on Wednesday.

He said it was not difficult to contain the fiscal deficit because it stood at 9.8 per cent of GDP in 2008 when he (Dar) was finance minister. "We were able to contain the fiscal deficit at 7.23 per cent of GDP through a Rs270 billion combination of measures that included about Rs92 billion additional taxes and painful expenditure cuts," he said.

The provincial governments had given an understanding to play their role to ensure fiscal discipline, he added.

Mr Dar said a sub-committee led by Senator Raza Rabbani had held detailed discussions with provincial chief secretaries on price control and its report would be presented to the parliamentary committee in its next meeting.

When asked if the proposed law on accountability would also cover judges and generals, Mr Dar said the government and opposition had a consensus that the accountability should be across-the-board and there should be no exemptions for any section of society.

In April last year, the National Assembly's standing committee had approved a draft bill to replace the National Accountability Bureau with a national accountability commission to hold all public holders of offices accountable for wrongdoings.

The draft bill had proposed to remove the immunity enjoyed by armed forces and judicial and parliamentary figures under Article 260 of the Constitution.

Responding to a question, Mr Dar confirmed that an IMF delegation would meet him and the Punjab chief minister on Tuesday.

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