Patron-in-Chief/Founder President of Bin Qasim Association of Trade and Industry, Mian Muhammed Ahmed has requested the competent officials of Port Qasim Authority for waiver of unjustified water charges, which are being taken by it from the consumers of trade and industry of Port Qasim.
This fact was stated by him on Monday in a press release of the association after non emergence of any fruitful results and ignorance of a constitution of a specific Committee comprising officials of PQA Board and BQATI to resolve the prolonged problems. He said that Bin Qasim Association of Trade & Industry has made a detailed study about the unjustified water charges of Port Qasim Authority, which are more exorbitant than the actual rates of Karachi Water and Sewerage Board.
According to this study, government of Sindh has increased 9 percent enhancement in tariff, w.e.f. 01st July, 2009 as per Gazette Notification March 01, 2010. On the contrary, PQA is charging 37 percent w.e.f. from 01st July, 2008, which are totally baseless and unjustified. In nutshell, this study indicates a vast variation according to which PQA rates are even higher than the actual charges of KW&SB.
Since 1998, PQA is charging 33.80/ton from the users whereas the KW&SB rates were only 16.22/ton. Similarly in the adjacent area, Pakistan Steel is charging only Rs 19.77/ton from the downstream industries, which is a matter of great consideration for PQA being low rate than PQA. Mian Muhammad Ahmed has also requested to reduce the rate of 23.15/ton of PQA for water consumed in the area of edible Oil and Molasses together with Water Plant.-PR