The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has rejected the government’s proposal to provide relief to the consumers of up to 400 units of electricity.

The Fund has however agreed to the proposal for collecting electricity bills in installments only from those consuming up to 200 units of power.

However, a final approval to collect bills in installments will be sought from the federal cabinet.

If approved, this measure will benefit about four million electricity consumers temporarily.

If the government’s proposal of providing relief to consumers of up to 400 units of electricity had been approved, it would have temporarily benefited 302 million consumers.

Sources have said that the IMF has stressed on cracking down on electricity and gas thieves and improving recoveries.

They further said that there is also a demand to increase the gas tariff by 45% to 50% from July 1.

This increase in gas tariff is also subject to an approval by the federal cabinet.

Around a week ago, caretaker Finance Minister Shamshad Akhtar had expressed her determination to fully implement the latest IMF program ahead of its first economic review, owing to which there were fears of a further increase in electricity and petrol prices instead of relief.

The government had shared with the IMF a plan to collect the electricity bill in installments. The Fund was also assured of collecting Rs250 billion by curbing electricity theft.

Following a successful completion of the IMF program, the price of petrol was likely to increase by Rs10 and diesel Rs15 per liter.