KARACHI: President of United Business Group (UBG), Zubair Tufail has clarified to the government that exports will not increase until industrial production costs are brought under control and these costs are reduced.

He emphasized that the price of energy should be adjusted to a competitive level at the regional level, with the price of electricity required at 9 cents per kilowatt hour to boost exports. He said that the country cannot develop with exports of 30 billion dollars; the private sector has given a plan to increase exports to 50 billion dollars in 3 years, by following which exports can be increased substantially.

Zubair Tufail said that he has strongly condemned the increase in the prices of petroleum products as an enemy of the people and demanded that the daily increase in the prices of petroleum products on the advice of the IMF should be stopped.

President UBG Zubair Tufail said that due to the huge increase in the prices of food items, including electricity, gas bills and petrol prices, the low-wage and poor people are in the grip of inflation. The new government led by Mian Shahbaz Sharif should increase the minimum wage to 42,000 rupees in view of the current inflation by controlling the inflation, the salaries of the government employees and the pensions of the pensioners should be increased, from the current highest interest rate of the State Bank.

The economy has suffered so much that the interest rate should be brought down to the lowest level on an emergency basis.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024