Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry's (FPCCI) acting president Rahim Janoo on Thursday urged Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to direct the authorities concerned to immediately withdraw the recent decision of increasing gas prices, or else the country's exports will dwindle further. He also demanded of the government to take the trade and industry on board while formulating trade related policies.
Voicing concern over the government's decision of increasing gas tariff by 23 per (ie from Rs 448 per MMBTU to Rs 600 MMBTU) for general industry and power captive sector and by 66pc for fertiliser sector, he said that such an exorbitant raise in the gas prices would increase the cost of production of indigenous products for export, besides making it impossible for exporters to compete in the global market.
In this regard, he also pointed out that exorbitant Gas Infrastructure Development Charges (GIDC) has already badly affected the industrial sector. Rahim Janoo further said that the industrial sector in the light of enhanced gas tariff and GIDC will be paying $6.72 per MMBTU which, he added, is 261pc higher than Bangladesh where the gas rates, at present, are $1.86/MMBTU. Moreover, our gas charges are higher by 83.6pc as compared to Sri Lanka where it was available for $3.66/MMBTU and by 44.2pc as against India. He further said that that the gas charges on captive power plants, including the GIDC @ US $1.92/MMBTU, was also higher by 312.9pc as against Bangladesh, 109.8pc as against Sri Lanka, 77.36pc as compared to Vietnam and by 64.8pc as against India.