Chairman, Pakistan Dry Ports Association (PDPA) and Faisalabad Dry Port Trust (FDPT), Sheikh Ashfaq Ahmed, has termed the recent 6 percent increase in electricity tariff as unjustified and demanded of the government to immediately withdraw this unwarranted hike.
He said high electricity tariff coupled with unprecedented load shedding will severely hit the industrial production, increase production cost and badly affect exports of the Country which have already been declined by 8.63 percent during last two months.
Talking to newsmen here on Monday, he said a number of power plants in Pakistan are being run through oil and gas which are abundantly available in the country. Moreover, oil prices have dropped in the international market, hence there was no cogent reason and justification for the recent increase in power tariff.
He regretted that the government has arbitrarily increased the electricity tariff by 60 percent during the last six months and was contemplating to further increase the tariff by 24 percent under the IMF conditionalities, although there was no solid reason for further increase.
Ashfaq said that the Textile Industry was already facing grave crisis since long and its production has been declined by 50 percent due to perpetuation of prolonged load-shedding and gas shut down and the hike in electricity tariff would put a negative effect on industrial production and erode our competitiveness in the world market.
Chairman PDPA reiterated that the government should immediately honour its commitment to exempt the "Textile Sector" from load-shedding and gas shut down ensure uninterrupted power and gas supply to sector. He urged President, Prime Minister and Finance Minister to take immediate cognisance of this issue and order for immediate exemption of Textile Industry from gas and power load shedding.
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