Dawn News/21-02-2020

ISLAMABAD: The federal cabinet decided to keep gas and electricity prices unchanged for the next four months [till the announcement of next fiscal budget] and tasked the ministries concerned with reducing taxes on utility bills to provide some relief to the inflation-hit people. Dr. Awan agreed that in the last cabinet meeting some members had proposed that Rs150bn funds allocated for the Ehsaas programme should be converted into a subsidy in gas and electricity, especially for domestic consumers, so that they could have significant relief, but said their proposals had been rejected because Ehsaas gave targeted subsidy to the poor class and if its funds were diverted to gas and power sectors, the elite class would also get its benefit.