KARACHI: SITE industrialists have expressed concern over the proposal to increase Power and Gas tariff, saying that the industrial production activities would be interrupted after the development.
A meeting of industrialists was held at the SITE Association of Industry to deliberate upon the press conference held by the federal information Minister and Special Assistant to PM on petroleum.
The meeting was attended by Zubair Motiwala, Patron SITE Association of Industry, Abdul Hadi, President SITE, former presidents Jawed Bilwani, and Saleem Parekh.
“We are particularly appealing the Prime Minister in light of his own vision which he has expressed time and again and shown his outright commitment to the industry and many times expressed that 2020 beyond would be the wealth making years”, they added.
The industrialists further said that the Prime Minister has to understand that this circular debt was not because of the industry as the industry pays more than 98 percent of their dues and Unaccounted for Gas (UFG) by the industrial sector is less than 2 percent.
“There are some elements which do not want the PM’s vision to come into reality. It is no rocket science that our competitors are getting energy at the international rates which have slashed down by more than 50 percent in last 2 years and as such, they are getting energy at less than 50 percent tariff than us and we are fast becoming uncompetitive with our regional arch-rivals in the intentional markets,” they added.
SITE industrialist added that it was surprising that the vision of the Prime Minister and thinking of Ministries are in almost opposite directions. “When they talk about increasing rates, the industry becomes alert because they are paying their dues.” They added.
They informed the Prime Minister that the post-COVID-19 scenario would be very competitive for exporters and domestic markets. “Price of gas should be reduced because international prices have gone down. It is a must for the enhancement of exports and the manufacturing sector,” they concluded.
