Despite cut in oil prices in the international market, the Ogra decision to make unprecedented increase in the petroleum prices is bound to push the entire industrial sector to the wall that has already been facing multiple internal and external challenges for the last many years.
The PIAF Chairman, Pakistan Industrial and Traders Associations Front (PIAF), Irfan Qaiser Sheikh, Vice Chairmen Khawaja Shahzeb Akram and Iqbal Baig Chugtai in a joint statement here on Monday said that industrial production had already nose-dived due to massive power outages and acute shortage of gas while the fresh increase would not only dent the exports but it would also make Pakistani merchandise uncompetitive in the global market.
Pakistan agriculture sector is 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, tub-wells, harvesters, thrashers and other agriculture machinery.
They said that the cost of thermal generation by private sector to go up. "Not only the transportation cost of goods would multiply but fares of public transport would also increase manifold." They urged the Prime Minister to immediately withdraw the increase in the prices of petroleum products in the larger interests of the country and its economy.