For 13 years, Rashid Ali has driven a three-wheeled motorised rickshaw around Lahore.
His day starts at 6am and sometimes does not end until midnight, but he was long able to make around Rs1,700 ($6.50) a day, enough for his family’s bare essentials. Now, with liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) prices surging, he doesn’t even make half that.
Ali, 33, is among thousands of drivers who run their vehicles on LPG, which is sold in cylinders and mainly used for cooking and heating.
Majeed Ghauri, Chairman of the Awami Rickshaw Union, calls it “the fuel of the poor” and says about 70 per cent of its members’ 43,000 auto-rickshaws and nearly 8,000 Qingqi motorcycle-based three-wheelers, which carry several passengers on set routes, run on LPG.
LPG prices have surged since October 17, when two Iranian border crossings closed, halting imports, traders say, in the latest energy shock since the US-Iran war began in February. One of the border crossings was opened a week later.
With Ali now lucky to make around Rs800 ($3) a day, his family has cut back on meals, eating only twice a day.
“Previously, when LPG was cheap, we could earn a decent income,” Ali said. “Now, it’s just not possible to get by on Rs700 or Rs800, is it?”
Before the border closures, Pakistan imported about 7,000 metric tonnes of LPG a day from Iran, the Pakistan LPG Association said.
Traders said the price of a 12-kilogramme cylinder jumped 56pc within days of the closure to Rs7,000, or about Rs583 rupees per kg in the open market.
Walking away
Ali pays Rs600 a day to rent his rickshaw, filling up with fuel four or five times a day, at Rs300 to Rs400 a time.
As well as daily expenses, Ali also pays Rs11,000 a month for his home and has two young children to support. Adding to his problems, passengers, he said, do not want to pay higher fares.
“For a trip that should cost Rs200 or Rs250, they might only offer Rs80, Rs100, or Rs150 rupees,” Ali said.
Passenger Mohammad Ramzan said when a driver asked Rs500 rupees for a ride in the city, he offered half that. When the driver declined, he walked away, he said.
Inflation hit 9.6pc in October and the central bank last week raised interest rates to 12pc, citing energy and wheat prices. Petrol hit a record Rs458 a litre on April 3 and remains about 40pc above its pre-war price.
Back home at midday, Ali said his two boys still needed their lunch. He would go out again until late at night, he said, hoping to make enough to bring something for the children to eat at night.
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