Pakistan Industrial and Traders Associations Front (PIAF) has shown grave concern on Rs 1.51 per unit hike in the electricity tariff on the pretext of fuel adjustment and summary of Rs 2 per unit further increase in the name of subsidy removal.
PIAF Chairman Sohail Lashari in a statement on Friday said those steps would push the trade and industry to the destruction.
He further said that prices of electricity had been raised massively and any further increase in electricity rates would be a blow to economic targets being set by the government. The government should review its decision in the larger interests of the economy, he added. He said that continuous raises in electricity tariff were earning bad name for the government besides hitting economic targets hard. He said that soon after assuming the office, present regime announced a number of projects to enhance electricity production but unfortunately the electricity situation stills the same. He said that industrial growth in the country was the lowest in the region while the rate of inflation was the highest when it was compared with other regional countries. Not only the graph of poverty was going up with every passing day but unemployment was also touching the alarming levels, he added. PIAF Chairman said that despite a strong opposition by the private sector, the government was generating a large part of electricity through costly thermal sources that had jacked up the cost of Pakistani products manifold and the same were fast becoming uncompetitive in the international market. Sohail Lashari said the government should not increase power tariff.
He said it would be wiser on the part of the government if it concentrated on hydle means of electricity generation instead of thermal means. Because through hydle means it would not only be able to get rid of foreign loans but would also be doing a great service to the trade and industry of the country, he added.
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