President, Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Abdul Majid Haji Muhammad, while expressing his deep concern over the recent announced increase in power tariffs from January by finance minister, stated that power crisis and increased tariffs have brought the industry on the verge of closure.
In a press release, he lamented on the decision of the government to increase power tariffs by 18 percent in two phases next year 12 percent in January and 6 percent in April under an IMF programme. "It is an irony that the due to unconstructive decisions of public sector, the private sector and common man are the worst sufferers being penalised against the sins they never committed," he voiced.
The KCCI President said that hike in power tariffs would worsen the lifestyle of masses due to unaffordable tariffs, whereas, the industrial and business concerns were already in doldrums due to highest-ever increase in the cost of manufacturing and doing business owing to the multiplicity of taxes and levies and excessive utility tariffs.
He said that the worst sufferer from private sector would be the export-oriented industry, which would not feasibly materialise its export orders resulting to a wider gap to fill the fixed export targets as announced in the trade policy.
He observed that no concrete measures were visible from the government's side to control the prevailing power crisis and instead it was pressing hard the private sector and masses. "Power tariff hike chaos will decline the revenue for the government. The outcome of escalating problems of trade and industry would be in the form of closure of industry and widespread unemployment," he said.-PR
Comments
Comments are closed.