The business community of South Punjab has sharply reacted to the increase of power tariff by Rs 3 per unit for commercial as well as industrial consumers and put extra burden on the traders describing it detrimental to country's economy. President of Multan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) Mian Iqbal Hassan said that Pakistani exports are already dwindling down day by day because cost of production has increased and Pakistani manufacturers unable to compete its competitors like Bangladesh, India, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia etc.
He further said that the amount represents about four percent of the GDP, and if circular debt continued unabated, will constrain the availability of electricity and further slow down economic activity. He said the private sector understands that the poor governance, delayed recoveries and pilferage are the reasons for fast increase in the circular debt therefore the government should use iron hand to control the factor and if it needs some assistance from the private sector it would readily extend maximum cooperation.
"We have to re-fix our priorities and concentrate on coal as the developing countries are giving preference to coal fired power plants," Mian Iqbal Hassan. He said that the electricity shortage has hit the industry hard as the manufacturing cost of industrial goods has gone manifold, reducing the profit margins. Besides, the frequent interruptions in the supply of electricity have impeded the productions, making it difficult for the businessmen to meet production targets. Now the government has increased the power tariff secretly without approval of Nepra to meet the pre-conditions of IMF.
Comments
Comments are closed.