KARACHI: Chairman of the FPCCI Advisory Board and National Business Group Pakistan, President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum, Mian Zahid Hussain, said that the manufacturing sector’s future has become bleak due to high electricity rates and taxes.

Many industrialists are investing their resources and profits in trading and gradually withdrawing from manufacturing, which is dangerous for the country’s future, he said.

He said that the power sector has become a problem that is pushing the economy into a quagmire, resulting in investors fleeing the country. At present, the electricity sector is losing trillions of rupees annually, but the employees and officers working in it have become very rich due to rampant corruption.

Mian Zahid Hussain said that governments had made generous agreements with IPPs, but people and businesses are facing its impact. He noticed that people pay for electricity they don't use and for exemplary electricity sector corruption.

Mian Zahid Hussain said that the consumption of electricity in the country is continuously decreasing while the theft is increasing, and if the system goes down, the profit of IPPs will also end.

All stakeholders should resolve this issue for the country’s economic recovery, and no sector should profit at the nation’s expense going forward.

He noted that unless the IPPs and the government make a fair and amicable agreement, the situation will only worsen. In his opinion, the current situation is detrimental for IPPs because their payments are unbearable. Currently, we need to strike a balance between the interests of electricity producers and consumers, but unfortunately, Nepra is not prepared to contribute positively in this area.

According to Mian Zahid Hussain, the heinous role of IPPs exposes the need for an immediate ban on the establishment of new IPPs, the extension of their contracts, and the equalisation of these power plants' tariffs with those of neighbouring countries.

He further said that a few years ago electricity was available at less than Rs15 per unit, but now, due to severe inflation, the common man has to pay more than Rs60 per unit. If the owners of private power plants continue to lack flexibility, the situation could potentially shift in either direction.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024