Gas moratorium will hit exports, investments and jobs: NBG chief

KARACHI: National Business Group (NBG) chairman and president of Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum Mian Zahid Hussain expressed concern that the suspension of natural gas to captive plants will hit production, exports, investments and jobs. The decision to shut down captive power plants will also hit revenue, tax targets and foreign exchange reserves, he said. Mian Zahid added that the decision to link factories having captive power plants to the national grid should be reconsidered as the feeble power infrastructure is unable to provide continued electricity.

He said that suspension of gas supply to industries will not improve the situation in the country but it will leave three hundred thousand workers in the textile sector which other sectors will also suffer.

The supply chain supporting the export sector will also be shattered creating more problems to the industrial sector, he said.

He noted that the decision has been taken at a time when the export industry has bagged unprecedented orders and billions have been invested in capacity building and expansion which is being wasted.

Mian Zahid Hussain said production, transmission and distribution system of the power sector is highly inefficient which is wasting twenty percent of the production resulting in circular dent amounting to almost Rs2.5 trillion.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021