ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue Miftah Ismail said the government was out of financial crisis now after raising the petroleum prices twice.
In a tweet, he said that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif would at some point announce austerity measures to save government expenditures, but there was not any plan of declaration of financial emergency.
“The Prime Minister will at some point announce austerity measures to save government expenditures. But there is not going to be any declaration of financial emergency. Nor is there any financial emergency. After two increases in petrol prices, we are out of the financial crisis,” he tweeted.
Miftah also refuted rumours regarding the closure of Roshan Digital Accounts (RDA), saying the government has no plans to “freeze foreign currency accounts or Roshan Digital Accounts or take over people private lockers”.
“We have never even contemplated these steps. Nor will we ever do it. Speculation on social media about this is wrong and coming from biased quarters,” the finance minister tweeted.
The Ministry of Finance and the State Bank of Pakistan also release a joint statement to dispel “baseless claims” circulating on social media regarding Foreign Currency Accounts (FCAs), Roshan Digital Accounts (RDAs) and Safety Deposit Lockers (SDLs).
Earlier this month, Ismail announced Rs30 per litre in the price of petrol to pave way for the revival of the IMF programme. This was the second increase in the price of petroleum products over the past two weeks.
