Friday, 2 September, 2022 I 5 Safar, 1444 I Rs 15.00 I Vol XIII No 64 I 12 Pages I Islamabad Edition
PM waives off faC for uP to 300 units of Power ConsuMPtion g
Premier ProPoses to exemPt farmers from Paying water charges on croP irrigation, waive off Power bills in flood hit areas
August inflation hits 27.3pc, highest in 47 years ISLAMABAD Ghulam abbas
ISLAMABAD
P
staff report
rime minister shehbaz sharif on thursday waived off the fuel adjustment charges (fac) for power consumers who consume up to 300 units of electricity in a month. the premier made this announcement while addressing a meeting of Pakistan muslim league-nawaz (Pml-n) lawmakers in islamabad. he said the waiver is being given with the aim to facilitate the com-
mon man who is bearing the brunt of inflation, adding that the relief will cover 75 percent of electricity consumers across the country. the Pm said that initially, the exemption was given to consumers who use up to 200 units with the government having to bear an estimated burden of PKr 21 billion for offering the exemption. however, broadening the scope of the relief to those who use up to 300 units in a month will have a wider impact. furthermore, Pm shehbaz also proposed to waive off the electricity bills of power consumers of flood-hit
areas and also suggested to exempt the farmers from water charges on crop irrigation in calamity-hit areas of the country. he also announced the launch of a solar programme for the production of cheap electricity in the country in the near future. he said this programme will generate electricity at the rate of PKr 9 per unit which will save billions of rupees. “my economic and energy teams are making all-out efforts to materialise the mega solar project, which is aimed at benefiting schools, hospitals, agri tube-wells etc.,” he added.
increased cost of fuel, and energy along with the devaluation of local currency has resulted in a 27.26% rise in inflation during august as compared to the same month of last year, taking it to a historic high of 47 years, data released by the Pakistan bureau of statistics (Pbs) showed on thursday. the inflation measured by the consumer Price index (cPi) in august on a year-on-year (yoy) basis was the highest fiscal year since 1974-1975. the cPi based inflation was registered at 8.4% in august 2021. Pakistan had earlier recorded the highest inflation of 26.66% in 1974 when there was a global oil crisis. the index has since mostly remained below 15pc with a few exceptions in november 2008, when the cPi was recorded at 24.3% and then 24.93% in July 2022 on a yoy basis. the average inflation between July and august increased by 26.10% this year against 8.38% over the same period last year. the spike comes as fuel prices began rising in the last week of may after the new coalition government scrapped costly fuel subsidies in an attempt to tame the surging fiscal deficit and revive the stalled international monetary fund (imf) loan programme. on a yoy basis, the transport index saw the biggest rise of 63.08% in the month under review, followed by perish-
able food items that increased by 33.85%, non-perishable food items by 28.85%, housing and utilities 27.57%, restaurants and hotels 27.43%, alcoholic beverages and tobacco 25.78%, and furniture and household equipment maintenance by 21.86%. in other categories, clothing and footwear saw an increase of 21.86% in prices, recreation and culture 21.78%, health 11.89%, education 9.99% and restaurants and hotels 7.41%. official data shows that food inflation remained on the higher side in august, as it shot up by 28.8% yoy and 1.6% mom in urban areas, whereas the respective growth in prices in rural areas was 30.2% and 1.2% — a reversal of the trend wherein urban areas usually experience higher food prices. non-food inflation in urban centers increased to 24.7% yoy and 3.3% mom, whereas in rural areas it rose to 27.5% and 3.1%, respectively. the increase in non-food inflation was mainly driven by unprecedented rising oil prices. the core inflation in urban areas was 13.8% in august against 12% the previous month. in rural areas, the increase was 16.5% against 14.6%. this shows that the increase in interest rates has not been able to stop the upward trend in core inflation. on a month-on-month basis, cPibased inflation increased by 2.4% in august 2022 as compared to 4.3% in the previous month.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 03