F.P. Report
KARACHI: Pakistan Industrial & Traders Associations Front (PIAF) chairman Irfan Iqbal Sheikh said on Sunday that business community had been demanding of the government since long to focus on bringing down high energy cost as Pakistan was losing export markets to Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India, Vietnam and other regional countries due to high power tariffs, but it was unfortunate that instead of bringing down electricity price, the government was taking measures to further enhance it, which would badly affect business and industrial activities causing further fall in country’s exports.
“The authorities should to also fulfill its commitment of undertaking all possible measures aimed at creating an enabling environment for the export sector to grow and make competitive headway globally,” said Sheikh in a joint statement with PIAF’s senior vice chairman Tanveer Ahmed Sufi and Vice chairman Shahzeb Akram. However, he applauded the government’s plan of introducing separate power tariff for export sector, which would be at par with the tariff of regional competing countries.
The PIAF chairman said that line losses and defaults in LESCO were low as compared to other Discos, and it was unjustified to make the consumers of the Disco to pay for the defaulters of other areas. He said that the government should focus on cheap energy sources for producing affordable electricity that would help promote businesses and industrialization, creating new jobs and improving country’s exports.
He condemned the NEPRA for resorting to easy approach of passing on the burden of defaulters to the general consumers which was illogical, as that practice would encourage further defaults and create disappointment among regular bill payers.
Iqbal said that the government had revived confidence of the industry by announcing export package for five zero rated sectors, which should also be expanded to other industrial sectors, including the pharmaceutical and rice sectors, as through this package, the cost of doing business would come down in the country. “The government should provide an enabling business environment to all the industrial sectors,” he added.
