The federal government has prepared a new mechanism for providing subsidies to electricity and gas consumers, while the International Monetary Fund (IMF) wants to implement the new system for electricity consumers from January 1 and for gas consumers from February 2027.

According to the report, sources said that the Power Division and the Ministry of Petroleum have prepared a new economic and social registry for providing subsidies to electricity and gas consumers.

The decision to implement the new subsidy system will be taken by a steering committee headed by Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, and a test run will be conducted before implementing the new subsidy system.

The IMF has set a condition for implementing the new system for electricity consumers from January 1 and for gas consumers from February 2027, however, the government wants to maintain the current subsidy mechanism until June 30, 2027.

According to sources, on the instructions of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, the issue of continuing the relief for another 6 months will be raised before the IMF, while the government is trying to extend the subsidy for consumers using up to 200 units of electricity by 6 months.