If you want to give the common man a subsidy on petrol, do not make the system complicated. The system that has been set up is complicated. There is a simpler way, and it is already in use.
Good ideas come from advice and suggestions, and the best of them come from the common man. The people at the top often do not know the real problems. They do not know what vegetables and ghee cost, because they are surrounded by their own kind. So take the advice of the ordinary citizen — he is the one standing at the pump.
Petrol stations issue fuel cards to government officials. Private companies issue them to their employees. The technology is proven, the retailers are familiar with it, and the reconciliation happens automatically at the back end.
Issue the same card to ordinary people. Load the entitlement onto it. Let the citizen use his discount whenever he wants, at whichever station is convenient. It is easy for him, and it is easier for the government, because every rupee of the subsidy is recorded against a card rather than against a promise.
When a simple thing is made complicated, people ask why. Layers of verification, registration windows, separate portals and conditional eligibility create delay, and delay creates discretion. Discretion is where leakage begins.
The current scheme has already shown how quickly friction appears. The government launched a relief of Rs100 per litre for motorcycles, rickshaws and 800cc cars. Within days, dealers refused to supply fuel under the scheme over their own concerns, even as the rollout began reaching motorcyclists. Others have argued the more direct route is to remove the petroleum levy altogether. Each of these is a symptom of the same problem, such as relief that has to travel through too many hands before it reaches the tank.
This is not an abstract debate. A motorcycle is how a salesman reaches his route, how a student reaches college, how a father reaches a second shift. When fuel rises, everything above it rises too — and Lahore’s households are already absorbing higher prices across the board. Officials have themselves warned that prices could climb sharply if a shortage emerges. A scheme that works only on paper is worse than no scheme, because it also consumes the credibility of the next one.
The deeper point is one of attitude. Put every rupee of the common man’s money into the country. Consider it forbidden for yourself. Treat subsidy money as sacred and make sure every resource is used for the nation’s welfare, and progress follows. How could it not?
A simple fuel discount card issued directly to citizens would make relief transparent, accessible and traceable. It would cut bureaucracy, reduce the room for misuse, and reconnect policy with what people actually need. It is not a grand reform. It is a practical one, grounded in the realities of the people it is meant to serve — and it would empower citizens while strengthening the national welfare that every government says it wants.
Pakistan Zindabad.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Lahore Times.
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