Acting President of FPCCI Muhammad Mansha Churra has expressed his grave concern on the increase of power tariff by six paisa per unit with retrospective from February 2009 for all consumers except farmers and electric users up to 50 units. There are apprehensions that there may be a further increase in tariff under IMF conditions.
He said that the rise in electric charges would add to the misery of the people already overburdened by escalating price hike. He stated that more shocking is the fact that increases in electricity charges is made without any assurances that there will be no load shedding in the future. He said that the plight of load shedding has simply increased the miseries of people who are already under dearth of essential commodities, high unemployment, unprecedented price hike, virtually no healthcare, fragile education system and law and order.
Muhammad Mansha Churra emphasised that the government is not taking the matter seriously even when the power crisis has badly affected the countrys financial hub with 75 per share in the countrys revenue generation. The government is wasting time in elaborating factors responsible for the mess rather than resolving the problem. He urged that the government should resolve the matter of load shedding and energy crisis on urgent basis. Vice President FPCCI and Chairman Standing Committee on SMEs Zakaria Usman accentuated that the management of the KESC has deliberately been producing less electricity than the available capacity of its plants.-PR