LCCI urges govt to withdraw hike in POL prices

LAHORE: The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) on Friday urged the government to withdraw recent hike in oil prices that is bound to jack up cost of doing business in Pakistan.

The LCCI President Irfan Qaiser Sheikh, Senior Vice President Kashif Younis Meher and Vice President Saeeda Nazar in their joint statement said that there is no denying the fact that oil prices are on the rise in the international market but instead of passing on this surge to masses, the government should cut the number of taxes on petroleum products as the fuel is the engine of growth.

“If the fuel would be heavily taxed the entire economy would suffer and the same happened in Pakistan as the repeated increases in the POL prices had ruined the industrial and economic activities.”

They said that only because of high cost of doing business in Pakistan, a large number of industrial units had already shifted their operations to other countries and the recent decision would force more industrialists to shift their industrial units. They said that it is not the industrial sector alone but the agriculture sector would also badly suffer.

“Pakistan agriculture sector is engine of growth. The increase in petroleum prices would increase the input cost of agriculture production as high speed diesel is being used in tractors, tube-wells, harvesters, thrashers and other agriculture machinery. They said that the cost of thermal generation by private sector to go up.

The LCCI office-bearers said that government is producing huge amount of electricity through thermal means and after increase in petroleum prices, prices of electricity would touch new highs.