LAHORE/HAVANA (HRNW) – Energy tariff hikes are now a routine matter in Pakistan as the cash starved country is juggling with the numbers to keep budget deficit in control both because of the economic necessities and the pressure exerted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
The Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) has already recommended further increase in gas prices on the top of record hike introduced in November last year – a natural outcome of ending subsidies – to tackle the ballooning circular debt.
Meanwhile, the power tariffs too have already touched the levels never seen before in Pakistan’s history in quest of arresting fiscal deficit, fuelling and sustaining inflation resulting in an unprecedented cost-of-living crisis.
However, what the people in Cuba – one of the few surviving communist states – are going to witness is a “history-making event” itself.