The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry while criticising the Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) for making huge increase of 36 percent in gas tariff has demanded of the government to reject the OGRA summary.
The LCCI President Abdul Basit in a statement on Monday said massive increase of 36 percent in the gas tariff would hurt the exports as it would jack-up cost of doing business manifold and expel the Pakistani products from the international export market. Such anti-business measures would hamper the growth of manufacturing sector; he said and added that the raise in the gas tariff would create multiple problems for the industrialists as they have to bear heavy loss while fulfilling their export commitments.
He said the government always vows to take the private sector on board but the government departments like OGRA are doing quite different and don't bother to consult the LCCI or any other sector-specific association. The impact of 36 percent increase in gas tariff would be much bigger than the expectation of the government who should avoid any such decision keeping in view the economic scenario in the country, he added.
A time when most of the countries around the globe are facilitating their respective private sectors, the situation in Pakistan is the other way round and various government departments are tightening noose around the private sector, he said. Even the slightest raise in the cost of production at this critical juncture would spell doom and oust Pakistani merchandise from the international export market but OGRA completely ignored this fact and moving for making 36% increase in gas tariff that would deprive the exchequer of much-needed valuable foreign exchange to the tune of billions of dollars, he maintained.
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