The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry Saturday flayed the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) decision to revise fuel prices every fifteen days and urged the government to implement policy of quarterly review of petroleum prices.
In a statement issued here, the LCCI President Irfan Qaiser Sheikh termed the ECC decision an inflation-push formula that would crush the entire economic activity to the extent therefore it would be wiser on the part of the government if the prices are reviewed after every three months. The LCCI President was of the view that at this point in time when the energy-related street protests, industrial closures and resultant massive lay-offs are order of the day, the ECC should have weighed options and methodologies to bring economic normalcy in the country but unfortunately it had done the other way round.
Irfan Qaiser Sheikh said that the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry has repeatedly appealed to the government to announce special incentives for the trade and industry to rejuvenate economic activity in the country but nothing like that has taken place so far. The LCCI President said that the implantation of ECC new fuel fixation formula would create multiple problems for the trade and industry as business community would not be able to calculate return on investment when the cost of doing business would be fluctuating every fifteen days.
Irfan Qaiser Sheikh said that it is common phenomenon that in unusual circumstances, routine working methodologies are shelved and special measures are adopted to get rid of economic meltdown but in Pakistan adhocism in policy making has taken deep roots. The LCCI President said that Pakistan had already lost a number of international markets and the Economic Coordination Committee decision would make the Pakistani goods more uncompetitive. He demanded that the new fuel price adjustment formula should also be revamped as it is bound to hit the millions of consumers hard. Irfan Qaiser Sheikh said that the Economic Coordination Committee should consult the business community before making any business-related decisions as it is the real stakeholder.
