Chairman, LCCI Standing Committee on Customs, Tariff Valuation and Imports, Irfan Qaisar has expressing his grave concern over deepening energy crisis in the country and urged the government to allow duty-free import of solar cells and batteries to promote solar energy in Pakistan to overcome severe power shortage.
Irfan Qaiser stated that load shedding affected industrial, commercial and domestic users alike. He said that closure of industrial units due to power shortage and load shedding has reduced their production and rendered them uncompetitive in the international market.
He said that the government should take energy crisis very seriously and make both long-term and short-term plans to resolve this problem. He stated that long term plans included utilising all hydel resources by building big water reservoirs and power generation units which was a cheaper way to produce energy.
The present government has taken some steps in this regard but it should take more bold decisions and go for Kalabagh Dam and other big projects to produce power in line with the increasing demand, he added.
He said that Pakistan should also go for alternative energy resources like other countries. He urged the government to reduce custom duty on generators with capacity from 1 KW to 1000 KW to 5 percent and UPS to 10 percent because of the energy crisis in the country.
Irfan Qaisar also demanded cut in duty on sealed batteries not manufactured in the country to 10 percent from the existing 20 percent. The LCCI standing committee chairman was of the view that these measures are necessary to facilitate the business community, which is facing a lot of trouble in marketing Pakistani products in highly competitive global market.