Small factory owners demand interest-free loans, deferment of utilities bills

F.P. Report

PESHAWAR: Small factory owners and manufacturers have demanded to give them the interest-free loans on easy conditions, deferment of electricity and gas bills for next three months, besides to devise procedure for registration of factory workers and daily wage labour with provincial labour department.

They, made these demands through a unanimous resolution endorsed during a meeting of All Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Small Industrial Estate Associations, which chaired by President of the Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) Engineer Maqsood Anwar Pervaiz here at the chamber house on Wednesday.

Former FPCCI vice president, Haji Muhammad Iftikhar Ahmad, President Small Industrial Estate Kohat Road Peshawar, Wahid Arif Awan, Senior Vice President Abdul Rasheed, President Abbottabad Chamber Khalid Latif, Sheikh Asif, Senior Member of Manshera Chamber Abdul Malak, Coordinator Small Industrial Estate Association KP Muhammad Younas Khattak, Chairman MMIDA Sajjad Khan, Arshad Muhammad, Mehran Afridi, Nazar Muhammad, Asadullah, Momin Afridi, Samiullah Afridi, Gul Sharif, Habibullah and others were present in the meeting.

The meeting in the resolution demanded of the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) to avoid from disconnection due to delay in timely payment of bills, besides to not collect additional surcharges from industrial and commercial consumers.

It was also sought ban on import of marble and granite to give boost to indigenous industries.

Addressing on the occasion, Maqsood Pervaiz said the small and medium enterprises and businesses had been adversely affected due to spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Therefore, he urged the federal and provincial governments to announce comprehensive relief package for small industries of the province.

SCCI chief urged to defer electricity and gas bills of small and medium scale industries for month of March, April and May and rescheduled the loans of small factories.

He furthermore asked to exempt small manufacturing units from all federal and provincial taxes for atleast one year. He also called to bring down the markup rate to single digit in upcoming fiscal budget for 2020-21 in the larger interest of trade, industry and economy.