On Tuesday, Pakistan’s cabinet passed a plan related to the funds and the heavy weight they have on the country in various different ways. Some measures were decided to restore Pakistan’s economy by cutting down on their over-reliance on imported oil. They ordered the respected people to close down shopping centers, malls, and wedding halls early and decided to make the government workers work from home.
Since the last year, global prices of energy and fossil fuels increased further causing more financial problems for Pakistan because of how dependent they are on these resources in their day-to-day lives. And to pay for them, the country required huge amounts of money, more so better in US dollars, which they very much lacked.
Khwaja Asif, Pakistan’s defense minister stated as an example for the people to follow, “No lights were on the cabinet meeting today. The meeting was held in full sunlight”. He said the measure being taken will save the nation around about 62 billion PKR.
Government departments have been told to reduce their energy consumption by 30% and all the centers and malls will be closed until 8:30 pm local time whereas, restaurants do not stay open until after 10 pm. An alternative to street lights can save up to 4 billion PKR too.
A further measure to help the issue is to stop the production of inefficient fans from the start of July 2023.
Apart from the energy costs, Pakistan is experiencing other financial losses too. It’s working out with IMF over the delay of $1.1 billion that was given out in August 2022 on international monetary funds. Additionally, It’s trying to restore the $40 billion worth of stuff that was destroyed last year due to the floods that ruled the country’s behavior.
