The business community of the Southern Punjab has urged upon the government to make the business viable in Pakistan so that our products could compete Bangladesh, India, Thailand, and China. President of Multan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) Fareed Mughis Sheikh has expressed his concern over more than 2 percent hike in gas tariff for power sector, taking new gas tariff for power sector to Rs 613 per million British thermal units (mmBtu) and called upon the government to reconsider this decision as it would further push up the cost of doing business in the country and make the country's exports more in-competitive in the international market.
He said the government should supply gas to textile and value-added industry at Rs .600 mmbtu and Gas Infra-structure Development Cess (GIDC) be withdrawn. However, Fareed Mughis Sheikh lauded the government's move to reduce gas tariff for fertiliser plants by Rs 76.59 mmBtu as it would provide good relief to the farmers and help in improving agricultural productivity.
However, he said that relief to fertiliser sector at the cost of power sector was not a wise move as increase in power tariffs would multiply problems for business and industry and put additional burden on the common man in the form of rising inflation.
He said per unit cost of electricity in Pakistan was reportedly 14 cents while it was 9 cents in India, 8.5 cents in China and 7.3 cents in Bangladesh, which showed that power tariffs were already highest in Pakistan due to which our exports were straggling. He said Pakistan's total exports during first half of 2015-16 (July-December) witnessed a decline of 14.4 percent to $10.322 billion against $12.058 billion in the same period of last year and further hike in power tariffs for gas-based power plants would make our exports more non-competitive.
Fareed Sheikh said that electricity was a key input for industry and any increase in its cost would translate into high production cost, high prices for consumers, slump in business activities and exports, low revenue generation and an overall negative impact on the economy.