LCCI demands further cut in POL prices

The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has urged the government to pass on the benefit of crude oil price reduction in the international market to the trade, industry, agriculture sector and the masses. Senior Vice President of the LCCI, Mian Nauman Kabir after having a meeting with the delegation of businessmen here on Saturday said that the price of crude oil is at the lowest ebb but government has not passed its full benefit to the trade, industry and agriculture sector.
He demanded of the government to reduce petroleum price by at least Rs 15 per litre considering the lowest oil prices in the international market. The crude oil price in the international market has come down to around $40 barrel but policy makers are reluctant to pass on the benefit to the trade & industry and masses with the ratio.
Kabir said that it is a sheer injustice that traders and masses are not given the benefit of crude oil price reduction. They are still suffering and paying heavy cost of electricity and transport fares. "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," he added. He 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. It is not the industrial sector alone but the agriculture sector is also suffering badly because of high prices of petroleum products, he added.
"Pakistan agriculture sector is engine of growth. Cut in petroleum prices would bring down the input cost of agriculture production as high speed diesel is being used in tractors, tube-wells, harvesters, thrashers and other agriculture machinery.
Kabir also demanded of the government to bring down the electricity prices as well as government is producing huge amount of electricity through thermal means. Indian government is taking every possible step to facilitate its economy. Therefore, the government of Pakistan would have to review its economic policies as well, he added.