It seems like a big move that the government is going to reduce the price of petrol per liter for motorcycles, rickshaws and cars up to 800 cc by Rs. If we have to wow, applaud, this is a good opportunity to say that you are really sympathetic to the poor, think a lot about them, want to give them relief, but it’s a sweeping statement. It means such a statement which is given by sweeping the facts. As there are statements that all the rich are corrupt and thieves and all the poor are oppressed and innocent. Such statements are very impressive for people with low IQ level but not for a journalist. The first question of an activist journalist like me is whether you have enough money in your treasury to give relief to more than 2 crore motorcycles and 450 million liters of used cars. The answer is that government funds are not wasted because the government wants to give from the rich to the poor and all the problems are hidden in this one question and answer. The government is planning to increase the oil prices of all vehicles except two crore motorcycles, rickshaws and 800 cc small vehicles by Rs. There is no right to object because it is not all rotten.
The whole stupidity is hidden in this question and answer. The government on its part wants to give relief to the poor, but it is to be seen which of the remaining vehicles they are going to charge Rs. There are those who still have not five, ten, but twenty or twenty old vehicles which they have bought for five, seven or ten lakh rupees. They consume more petrol but they cannot afford a new fuel efficient vehicle as there are many new six hundred and sixty cc vehicles on the roads and their prices have reached between 30 to 40 lakh rupees. There are many of them who even drive in hot weather with the windows open so that the AC does not waste petrol. You are going to punish a large section of the middle class with Rs 400 per liter petrol. The problem with this is that you cannot remove the element of corruption from all such projects like what happened in cheap bread. There will be many levels of corruption here because in them you are making petrol pumps, banks and petrol supplying companies as equal participants. After these three stages, the work of taking cheap petrol and selling it expensive will remain in place.
The real explosion will happen when you charge four hundred rupees per liter of petrol for every type of vehicle apart from these three types of vehicles, then they will include small loaders, buses and trucks as well. That is, from food to medicine, all types of transportation costs will increase immensely. The government has increased the price of petrol from one and a half rupees to three hundred rupees, which means that by adding two hundred rupees, the total price of every item has doubled. Where the fares of buses and trucks will increase, the house which used to cost Rs 15,000 per month has reached Rs 30,000. You will take the same cost to Rs 45,000. When petrol is available at Rs 100 less, will you reduce the fare because we have no concept of per km fare. This is bargaining. The answer was that if you will give me a saving of 5000 on fifty liters of petrol per month and at the same time increase the cost of the house by 10000 by making everything more expensive, how will I reduce the rent? The rickshaw driver will also tolerate it, but after the establishment of the current government, where will he go, just like the fixed income salaryman?
Listen to the next one. The Petrol Pump Dealers Association has clearly and categorically said that without taking us into confidence, you have put the burden of thirty-three percent of this sale on us, while already three-thirds of the business has been done. Thirty-three percent of the burden will be borne by the petrol pump owner, who will be refunded, but the association says that it is an easy task to get a refund from the government. It is better that we close the business and sit down. Recently, a video of Ishaq Dar has gone viral in which he is lashing out at the former government for giving refunds to the industrialists. In such a situation, getting refund from Ishaq Dar will not be an easy task as the government is saying that refund will be done every day and night. I can say with all my confidence that the government will force the motorcyclists to waggle their way through a lot of people who are still out there wearing white and screaming naked. The people for whom you will increase the price of petrol by another hundred rupees are the influential people of the society. The behavior of the poor people will be the same as those who are currently taking free flour. Whichever line you go, you will find only two, four thanking the government, but twenty, thirty and forty who are saying that the poor have been humiliated. A 10 kg bag of flour worth 650 rupees has been reduced to 1100, what kind of favor is being done and on the other hand, the opposition is calling these lines death rows. So far three to four people have been killed. The videos are viral.
I do not hesitate to say that the government will do a lot of damage in the process of making political gains. The poor do not want to be happy and the drunkards also have to do the same. The worst thing would be inflation which would be impossible to bring back and control. I don’t mind giving cheap petrol to motorcyclists but it will only benefit you if you give it from your play or else there will be two queues of abusers at every petrol pump instead of one. The last thing to say is if If you want to give cheap petrol, focus on buying cheap petrol and then supply it at a low price.
