KARACHI: The Chairman of the FPCCI Advisory Board and National Business Group Pakistan, President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum, Mian Zahid Hussain said that the current price of electricity is harmful for production, business, employment, and exports.
He said that the destructive policy of continuous increases in energy prices makes it impossible to reduce inflation and improve people’s living conditions.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that official data on inflation is not in line with ground realities, as people are suffering more than seen by authorities.
He said that essential commodities cannot be affordable when energy prices are continuously increasing.
The prices of all essential commodities is subject to the cost of energy and transport, and giving some kind of relief to the people by increasing the cost of energy can only be possible in rhetoric, he observed.
He said that the electricity prices and taxes on them have affected the people badly, and they have not been able to meet their other monthly expenses.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that Jamaat-e-Islami’s protest against electricity rates and taxes was a very positive step. This protest was not intended for political purposes, but rather to alleviate the nations suffering, and those who colluded with IPPs have exposed themselves by not participating.
As soon as JI’s protest over the government’s assurances ended, the government proved its helplessness in front of the people by increasing the electricity rate by Rs 2.56.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that in the current situation, neither the government is doing anything to reduce inflation nor the efforts of the State Bank are getting any benefit.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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