LCCI urges early completion of water, hydropower projects

RECORDER REPORT

LAHORE: The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has urged the government to complete water and hydropower projects in the shortest possible time as an acute shortage of electricity is hitting hard the economic activities in the country.

LCCI President Irfan Qaiser Sheikh in a statement on Tuesday said that timely completion of hydropower projects was vital for mitigating water and power shortfall.

He said the government should ensure equal supply of electricity throughout the country as Punjab was the worst-hit province by the electricity shortage and only last year it lost three percent of its GDP due to power crisis.

He said that due to longer hour power cuts the investment scenario had spoiled in the province and so much so existing industrial units had curtailed their productions.

He said despite a consensus decision at the Energy Conference held on April 9 and a pledge by for equal loadshedding across Pakistan, the electricity consumers especially in Punjab continued to suffer from unjust and prolonged loadshedding.

He said acute electricity and gas shortage had not only crippled the trade and industry but had also brought widespread unemployment and poverty.

Irfan Qaiser Sheikh said consumers of the efficient distribution companies with lowest line losses and the highest recovery ratio were being treated unfairly.

He said Punjab contributed nearly two thirds to the GDP of Pakistan. “Punjab pays for 80 percent of electricity bills and gets only 60 percent of electricity units. Yet Punjab is being made the worst victim of injustice.”

He said the Energy Conference 2012 had pledged to reduce and equalise loadshedding throughout the country, yet the situation had not improved, adding that awful prolonged loadshedding was hitting all sectors of economy including trade, industry and agriculture.  He said the private sector was engine of the growth and in the developed countries it was facilitated to the maximum but in Pakistan circumstances were quite the other ways round.

Irfan Qaiser Sheikh said LCCI had repeatedly warned the government of massive lay-offs and industrial closures if it failed to immediately stop power outages but people sitting on the helm of the affairs were playing the role of silent spectators.

He said the government would not be able to control the situation triggered by the demonstrations and strikes called by the angry industrial workers against their retrenchments as a result of these power outages. “How the government would establish its writ and from where it would collect revenues to run its day-to-day affairs when the industrial wheel is coming to a grinding halt.”

He said the government should understand that economic well being was a must for democracy. “Unemployment, price-hikes, industrial closures always give birth to lawlessness and anarchy. Therefore, the government should understand the ground realities and reset its priorities regarding provision of electricity to the industry,” he said.

He said industry needed continuous supply of electricity to keep the units operational and to complete the export orders well within the given timeframe but only because of the shortage of electricity the exports were not up to the mark. Irfan Qaiser Sheikh said Pakistan had already lost a number of global markets and the new power cuts would further aggravate the situation.