The business community on Tuesday termed the government decision to cut petrol prices by Rs.2 per litre eyewash and a joke with the inflation-hit nation.
The Chairman Lahore Township Industries Association Iftikhar Bashir Chaudhry, former chairman Haroon Shafiq Chaudhry, Tahir Javed Malik, Iqbal Chughtai, Fida Hussain, Chaudhry Zaheer Bhutta, Mian Nauman Kabir, Sheikh Muhammad Ayub and Babar Mahmood Chaudhry in a statement said that government should withdraw the recent massive increase in POL prices otherwise business community would be bound to agitate the government's anti-business policies.
They said that the recent hike in the POL prices were the most cruel and unjustified decision of the government. They said that it would not only cripple the trade and industry but would also squeeze the poor masses. They said that the increase would hit all the sectors of the economy and would also jack up the inflation and resultant hike in mark-up rates and disturb the entire economy.
They said that due to high cost of doing business in Pakistan, a large number of industrial units had already shifted their operation to other countries and recent decision would force more industrialists to follow the suit. 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, tube-wells, harvesters, thrashers and other agriculture machinery.
They said 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 added. They said that the people from all walks of life were already annoyed due to prolonged load shedding and recent massive increase in POL prices has added more fuel to the fire. They demanded of the government to withdraw the whole increase instead of cutting of only one or two rupees.