The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) has urged the government to withdraw oil price hike decision as the 'oil shock' is bound to hit economy and masses alike. LCCI President Irfan Qaiser Sheikh said here on Wednesday that petroleum prices were already at the highest level and any further increase would prove the last straw that breaks the camel's back.
He said that a comparison between the international oil prices and local prices was enough to make the point that the local prices had registered more than 50 percent increase in the last two years in comparison with the global rates. Therefore, he said, the government had no justification to make any increase in POL prices.
Irfan Qaiser Sheikh said the increase would hit all the sectors of the economy that would jack up the inflation and resultant hike in mark-up rates and disturb the entire economic cycle. He said that to keep the economic cycle well on track, the government would have to shelve the decision to increase oil prices.
The LCCI President said there was no denying the fact that oil prices were on the rise in the international market but instead of passing on this surge to masses, the government should cut the number of taxes on petroleum products as the fuel was the engine of growth. "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 follow the suit. The LCCI President said the entire industrial sector was already facing multiple internal and external challenges and any new increase in POL prices would further aggravate the economic situation. He said Pakistan agriculture sector was engine of growth. The increase in petroleum prices would increase the input cost of agriculture production as high speed diesel is being used in tractors, tube-wells, harvesters, thrashers and other agriculture machinery.
He said the cost of thermal generation by private sector to go up. The LCCI President said that not only the transportation cost of goods would be multiplied but fares of public transport would also be increased manifold. He said the government was producing huge amount of electricity through thermal means and after increase in petroleum prices, prices of electricity would touch new highs. Irfan Qaiser Sheikh said the LCCI had for the last many months been calling on the concerned government circles to take measures for the promotion of alternate fuels as trade deficit was fast widening due to heavy imports under the head of petroleum products.
He was of the view that the timeline for the increase in the prices of petroleum products was also raising questions because at a time when the whole industry was suffering due to energy crisis and high cost of doing business, the raise in POL prices was bound to give a further blow to the industry. "It seems that it is an attempt to create troubles for the government," he added.
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