ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Miftah Ismail has denied the government had waived the application of fuel cost adjustment (FCA) on electricity bills, adding that they have been deferred, however, he claimed that inflation and electricity rates would start coming down from October.
He was speaking at a joint news conference with Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif on Wednesday.
Reporters were informed by the finance minister that power rates, FCAs, and quarterly tariff adjustments would all decrease in October (QTAs). He added that diesel and gasoline prices will be determined by the world oil market and that they would have to be endured for another month.
The finance minister responded that the FCA had been deferred when asked to clarify whether the premier’s decision about the withdrawal of FCA for homes consuming 200–300 units indicated suspension for later recovery or complete waiver.
The government had decided to apply Rs9.90 per unit FCA over a three-month period to users consuming up to 200 units per month.
The minister stated that after government involvement, the price of onions and tomatoes also decreased from around Rs300 per kg following floods that wrecked crops in Sindh and Balochistan to closer to Rs100 per kg. He claimed that although these natural occurrences were beyond of one’s control, they would need additional funding and be primarily arranged using one’s own resources.
When asked if the government would seek emergency funding from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to deal with damage caused by flooding, Miftah Ismail responded that he was in contact with the Fund but that the emergency was not a priority right away until a disaster need assessment was finished in consultation with the World Bank and other organizations for rehabilitating flood victims. He claimed that numerous estimates put the cost of the flood damage at $10 billion.
