ISLAMABAD (Kashmir English): The federal government has decided to cut the development budget of the current Fiscal Year 2025-26 by Rs 100 billion to provide relief to people amid the rising petrol prices.
According to the sources, the government will not increase the prices of petroleum products; instead, it will manage the financial pressure arising in this regard from the development budget.
The government had proposed to reduce the budget from the Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) from Rs 1,000 billion to Rs 900 billion to maintain the prices of petrol and diesel so that the fiscal deficit can be controlled.
The media reports alleged that it is being considered not to increase the price of petrol by Rs 55 and diesel by Rs 75 per liter.
In a statement, the Federal Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal confirmed the decision, saying that this step has been taken to balance the economic pressure and avoid putting the burden of increasing petrol prices on the public.
Rationing of petrol
It has been reported that the federal government has decided to introduce a digital system for rationing petroleum products.
In this regard, the government is developing an app, and every consumer will register in the app by entering their vehicle number and their identity card number.
The government will set a petroleum quota for each citizen according to their needs and availability. Every citizen will be able to get daily petrol or diesel according to the quota set in the app.
In this regard, the government has conducted a comparative review of the use of petroleum products from last March to this March, which has shown that despite the high cost of petroleum products, the use is increasing instead of decreasing.
The sources also said that the Punjab government is considering the proposal to introduce a coupon system for the distribution of petrol.
In this regard, important recommendations have been presented to Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz by the Energy Department, under which fuel rationing will probably be done in the province on the federal model.
A coupon or digital system will be introduced for the fair distribution of petrol and diesel, through which a proposal to provide fuel to limited vehicles on specific days is under consideration.
