Business community has rejected the recent unfair increase in petroleum prices and demanded the government to withdraw Rs4.15 and Rs1.51 per liter increase in petrol and diesel prices respectively as the bulk increase is bound to shatter all segments of society including industrialists and traders. In a press statement issued here Saturday, the PIAF Chairman Sohail Lashari, Senior Vice Chairman Nadar Kamal Osman, Vice Chairman Junaid Iqbal Sheikh and Chairman of Auto Parts Manufacturers & Exporters Association Tahir Javed Malik while reacting strongly on thisdecision by the government, said that the authorities did not bother to pass on the benefit of a decrease of oil prices in international market to the consumer and earned billions of rupees. They said that there is almost no production in the industrial estates due to massive load shedding while recent increase in petroleum and diesel prices would prove to be a big blow, to not only the industry but to the agricultural sector that is the backbone of the economy. They said that industrialists, traders and common men are already under the burden of persistenting inflation and due to unscheduled load shedding while increase in petroleum prices would add fuel to the fire. They said that government should cut down on their extravagant expenditures and curtail taxes and duties on petroleum. PIAF had been calling on the concerned government circles to take measures for the promotion of alternate fuels as trade deficit was fast widening due to heavy imports under the head of petroleum products but there is no response form their end.
