LAHORE: Chairman of Pakistan Steel Re-Rolling Mills Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar on Monday expressed grave concerns over the extraordinary increase of per unit rate of electricity and the inclusion of various taxes and fuel adjustment charges in the electricity bills.

In a statement issued here, Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar said that the overall electricity tariff has increased by 53.68% in a year from PKR18.20/kWh to PKR27.97/kWh and 39.16% in comparison to the past six months during which it increased from PKR20.10/kWh to PKR27.97/kWh. Additionally, Fuel Adjustment Charges (FCA) has increased. He said that the prices of electricity were increased by almost ten times in a year. The average FCA amount last year was around PKR1/kWh which is now around PKR10/kWh.

He said unexpected raise in electricity tariff causes huge lose to the steel industry. He demanded that general sales tax on electricity bills should be reduced and biggest reason of high input cost of the steel sector. He said many furnaces have closed down their operations because they were unable to pay the bills adding that US dollar is not stable. It is difficult to open new L/Cs. Non availability of USD is also creating problems. He further said the steel melting sector production is reduced because of import duties.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022