Pakistan Diesel Stock Pakistan braces for worst diesel shortage: Experts warn PM Shehbaz Sharif
Islamabad: Economists and other industrial experts have warned Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif that the country would face the worst shortage of diesel next month amid the harvesting season as its stocks are fast plummeting.
Sources told The Express Tribune that the experts had urged Premier Shahbaz to increase oil prices in order to avoid the swelling price differential claims that accumulated to around Rs 60 billion in only one month of April 2022.
The prime minister was also informed that there would be no protests if the oil prices were increased.
The sources said that diesel stocks were depleting fast as only 18-day supply remained in the country.
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has tried to give relief to people of the nation by rejecting the proposal to hike the price of petroleum products for the period Apr 16-30, media reports said on Monday.
The current government's decision to keep the prices unchanged will force it to give another hefty amount in subsidy from April 16 to 30, reports The News International.
Meanwhile, Shehbaz Sharif has blamed ex-PM Imran Khan-led government's 'mismanagement' for the ongoing energy crisis.
Speaking at the National Assembly on Saturday, Sharif said the ongoing loadshedding had nothing to do with the power generation capacity.
“Today there is loadshedding in the country due to gross mismanagement and incompetence of the previous government,” Sharif was quoted as saying by Dawn News.
He said the country had the capacity of generating 35,000 megawatts of electricity, but due to the closure of different power plants running on gas and oil, different parts of the country were facing load-shedding for the last few days.
The prime minister said that soon after assuming the charge, he had received briefings from officials of the ministries of petroleum and energy over the loadshedding issue.
He said the country was facing a shortage of about 6,000 MW of hydel power, which was linked to the melting of glaciers and the availability of water.
Despite this, he said, the country had sufficient electricity to meet the requirements of the country.
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