Economic greed

The government is trying its best to develop the economy under difficult circumstances as we are facing an economic and health crisis. Yet, there is no end to the insatiable greed of businessmen and industrialists who are only thinking about themselves even under the dire situation.

We have often criticized the government for not doing enough but we need to see what it has given and the role in developing the economy. The government reduced the interest rate from 13.25 percent – the highest in the region – to seven percent to benefit the local industry. Despite that none of the businesses even reduced two percent on the price of their products.

As global crude oil prices came stumbling due to the economic crisis, the government also reduced the prices of petroleum prices in the country. The price of petrol in August 2019 was Rs117.83 per litre but has now been reduced to Rs80.15. Pakistan now has the cheapest petrol in the region and 22^nd lowest in the world. Yet, our transporters did not reduce fares nor did the industry drop prices of products. We cannot expect economic change if we are unable to bring any change to support the government.

The government ensured that shopkeepers and industries will be provided uninterrupted electricity during the pandemic. Did the shopkeepers even reduce the price of the products? The government also reduced duties on many raw material items but none of the industries reduced their rates. There has been a marked reduction in fertilizer prices but no decline in prices of agriculture products.

This inherit greed has led us to keep our profits for ourselves. We expect to receive relief but are unwilling to share it with others. We have developed this habit of blaming others and saying that the government is not doing enough and the economy is not improving, while we are unable to change ourselves.

The economy will only improve when we reduce the cost of production and sell out products on low rates to local and international buyers. If we can unable to end our insatiable greed, it will lead to moral and economic collapse and no government will be able to save us. We can only expect change when we change ourselves.