Miftah- Press ***** 02 **ISLAMBAD**

Miftah- Press    ***** 02 **ISLAMBAD**

..:The Minister for Finance said that the government will increase tax on petroleum products and not the price, for which OGRA has fixed the formula.

Miftah said yesterday's decision to increase the price of petroleum products was right, which is necessary for the economic self- reliance of the country.

He said that difficult economic decisions are being taken for economic self-reliance in the country.

The Minister said that if "we had increased the production of energy,the country would also need to increase exports by increasing industrial production.

He said the government has saved the country from bankruptcy, "we have staked our political capital." The Minister said that our next goal is to control inflation and added that petroleum tax has been reduced from Rs 42 billion to Rs 27 billion.

He said that the price of petrol in regional countries including India is Rs 302 per liter and similarly the price of petrol in Bangladesh is Rs 308 per litre.

Both countries India and Bangladesh have foreign reserves of $600 billion Dollars and $35 billion respectively.