Former President Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) Tariq Sayeed has suggested government to buy electricity at low prices from China and Iran to fulfil the supply and demand gap in the country. Addressing a gathering of business community hosted by former Vice President FPCCI Zubair Tufail, he said that the country's economy is already facing many challenges and with current hike in petroleum products, cost of production will further increase.
Criticising the massive increase in prices of petroleum products he appealed to the president and prime minister to further reduce oil prices otherwise local industry face massive damages. "Harsh decision without consultation and consent of stakeholder may result in widespread discontentment in the business community," said M. Muneer. He said that the closure of industry, due to detrimental affect of high cost of production followed by higher utility tariffs will lead to massive unemployment and decline in the revenue of government.
Tufail also rejected the government's decision to increase prices of petroleum products and said it would be impossible to provide locally manufactured goods in domestic markets at affordable rates. Pakistan will face a tight competition in the world market due to hike in petroleum products, gas and electricity, this will resulted in decline in exports. He said that current price hike will ultimately escalate the cost of production of the industrial sector. This decision will have a bad impact on the overall economy and particularly on the performance of Large Scale Manufacturing (LSM) sector.-PR