Recently, the leaders of several business associations and Labour Unions held an urgent news conference in the nation’s capital and leveled serious allegations against the government. The President of All Pakistan Traders Association, Ajmal Baloch told the reporters that the government was replenishing its losses of electricity theft and free-of-cost electricity for WAPDA employees through charging Fuel Price Adjustments(FPA) to common citizens and traders. According to him, earlier traders opposed the fixed tax imposed by the government uniformly without any segregation of small shopkeepers and a colossal business giant, while Federal Minister for Finance and Revenue, Miftah Ismail himself admitted the government’s mistake and reversed the wrong decision., similarly the imposition of FPA in the head of electricity is another blunder of the government which not only caused unrestricted inflation but also exposed the pro-public sloganeering of the rulers.
The coalition government came to power on the one-point agenda of combatting the skyrocketing inflation in the country, however, the collective wisdom of PDM’s leaders failed to restrict the monster of inflation over the past four months. Unfortunately, the government has charged the electricity consumers with FPA, which constitutes over 80% value of their monthly bills and caused grave concerns in the masses because if the amount or price of the fuel was not determined at the time of billing then its value must not accede 10-15 percent of the provisional bill. While there had been rumors in the public that the Minister of Energy had planned to recover all its privation including lines losses, electricity theft, and expenses incurred on the provision of free-of-cost power to WAPDA and NTDC employees from the public in the garb of FPA.
In fact, public enterprises had become white elephants for the government due to excessive staffing, lofty payments, and lucrative incentives such as free gas, electricity, travel vouchers, and unrestricted health coverage coupled with the uncurbed corruption of government servants. Hence, the common citizen and traders were the sole producers of the country. Apparently, the political leadership must use its tact in decision making otherwise bureaucracy will not only distort the economy but also drown their politics.
