The Pakistan Industrial and Traders Associations Front (Piaf) has urged the government to do away with the decision of 17 percent increase in the electricity tariff as any further raise in power tariff will not only put extra burden on already crisis-hit industry, it would also create multiple problems for masses.
"The business community is surprised that instead of taking measures to control line losses and enhance power generation capacity, the policies are being evolved to add to the miseries of the people," said Piaf Chairman Irfan Qaiser Sheikh in a statement here on Monday.
He said that almost 30 percent industrial units had closed down their operations due to acute shortage of electricity and if corrective measures were not taken, the situation could further aggravate.
He said that negative 7.7 percent growth, witnessed by the large scale manufacturing (LSM) sector in the outgoing year, was indeed an eye opener and a wake up call to the government as only a year ago, it was between 18.5 and 12 percent, which had now reached the alarming low levels.
He said that the industry needed a continuous supply of electricity to keep the units operational and to complete the export orders well within the given timeframe, but because of the shortage of electricity, the exports were not up to the mark.
The Piaf Chairman said that Pakistan had already lost a number of international markets and the proposed increase in power tariff would make the Pakistani goods uncompetitive.
He said power tariff in Bangladesh and India were 20 per cent less than that of Pakistan, while a few sectors in China were getting electricity absolutely free of cost. He said that almost all the developed countries were pressing Pakistan to stop extending subsidies, while they themselves were giving huge subsidies to their respective agricultural sectors, and urged the government not to withdraw Rs 65 billion subsidy on electricity, fertilisers, petroleum products, gas and agriculture sectors.
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