ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Financial Affairs Hammad Azhar on Saturday said inflation had been decreased due to reduction in oil prices.

Talking to a private TV channel, he said the last government of the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) had imposed 42 per cent oil tax but the incumbent government had imposed it only 30 per cent.

The minister said oil prices in Pakistan’s neighboring countries were still higher.

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On Feb 4, Advisor to Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Hafeez Sheikh had said that the inflation rate in the country would lower down gradually. The advisor had said that the federal government had taken a number of steps to decrease prices of several utilities.

“The nation will see that soon the prices start falling down”, he had added.

Hafeez Shaikh had said the government did not borrow money from State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) to control inflation, in addition to decreasing budget deficit by reducing unnecessary spending. Proposing the provinces to play their role in controlling inflation, he had said issues of hoarding and profiteering need to be tackled by administrative action.

He had said to a query that the prices of food items that of fresh vegetables increased as a result of seasonal changes and hoped that the prices would fall in the days to come. He had said that decision was also made to import wheat in a bid to control inflation.