The row between State Minister for Finance Hina Rabbani Khar and Federal Minister for Overseas Pakistanis Dr Farooq Sattar over tariff hike during the cabinet session on Monday leaves a bad taste in the mouth. However more disturbing is the fact that the government plans to further raise this tariff. This would amount to rubbing salt on peoples wounds because for one thing, there is enough load shedding going on and for another, the electricity officials have warned of the crisis intensifying in the days to come. So the public would be paying more for lesser supply. The State Ministers argument that the government is forced to revise the prices because of the IMF conditions is, indeed, true. Yet it highlights the pitfalls of falling into the IMFs lap as well. Likewise, the news that the government would be importing ethanol and encouraging its use so as to reduce oil consumption, does not please much when one hears of an expected increase in the price of CNG. The government ought to realise the need for a more coherent and people-friendly energy policy.