Oil prices may further rise before June 30: Ishaq Dar

Federal Finance Minister, Ishaq Dar has said that oil prices might further rise before June 30, 2008, as the government was giving subsidies on oil and diesel in the range of Rs17-21 per litre.Briefing the Senate standing committee for finance here, he said that the financial deficit has shot up to Rs557 billion due to the policies of the previous government. He said that this included such Rs125 billion, whose record was missing and it was without any audit. He said that the previous government spent Rs44 billion for wheat, Rs75 billion for development expenditures and Rs43 billion for DAP and other additional grants, while Rs70 billion subsidy was paid to Wapda on account of electricity. Thus, the financial deficit worked out to over 9 percent, which cutting down would be brought to 7 percent. Ishaq Dar said that talks were underway with the Asian Development Bank for $1 billion fund.