ISLAMABAD: Expressing concern over increase in petroleum prices by Rs12 per litre in one go, a parliamentary panel Monday proposed to give the powers of determining petroleum products’ prices to parliament. The Senate standing committee on cabinet secretariat which met here with Senator Rana Maqbool in the chair said the way petroleum product prices are increasing on almost weekly basis is simply unrealistic and unjustified.

The committee decried the Rs12 increase in petroleum products in one go, terming the justification given by the prime minister and his cabinet for the soaring price hike in global market nothing but a joke with the masses.

The committee chairman said that the way the government is increasing the petrol prices under whatever pretext is simply not convincing enough for the public. The committee said that the people are struggling to cope with a sustained onslaught of elevated food and energy inflation for the last over three years, adding the people simply could not brace themselves for a financial crunch as petrol and diesel prices are about to reach new heights.

The committee members were of the view that since the government is not bothered about the plights of masses due to exorbitant increase in petroleum product prices, the time is rife that determining the increase in POL products should be given to the parliament.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021