The Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry Tuesday took strong exception to another increase of Rs.1.67 per unit in power tariff and termed it a plan to turn the country into a marketplace instead of a manufacturing hub. In a statement issued here, the LCCI President Irfan Qaiser Sheikh urged the government to refrain from any further increase in power tariff that is bound to give a death blow to its reputation. He said that despite making over 100 per cent increase in the electricity tariff in the last three years the genie of circular debt could not be bottled while the power crisis are deepening with every passing day. The LCCI president said that the ongoing electricity outages have not only curtailed the industrial production by 50 percent while it has also eroded the competitiveness that is a key to have a place in the international market. The LCCI President said that how the industry would remain competitive at such a high price of electricity which is one of the basic industrial raw materials. We already have the highest tariff in our region as in India, the electricity tariff for industry is 10.5 cents, in Bangladesh 10.75 cents and in Sri Lanka it is again 10.75 cent whereas in Pakistan tariff is already 15 cents meaning that 45 percent higher as compared to the region. With the recent increase, we will have double the tariff of electricity what the regional countries are offering to their trade and industries leaving Pakistan totally uncompetitive and unviable in the international market place. “The country had already lost a number of international markets to China, Bangladesh and India due to high cost of doing business and the decision to increase power tariff would make the Pakistani goods more uncompetitive.” The LCCI President said that the Ministry of Water and Power proposal was putting extra burden on the consumers who are paying their dues regularly and there are minimum line losses in their respective Discos. Irfan qaiser Sheikh stressed the need to impose higher tariff on those distribution companies which have registered higher losses and less recovery. The LCCI President opined that the decision is bound to increase the incidence of electricity pilferage that already is 25 per cent of the 22 per cent line losses and eating up Rs 50-75 billion. He said that the business community was unable to understand that instead of taking measures to control line losses and enhance cheap power generation up to capacity, the policies are being evolved to add to the miseries of the business doing people. Irfan Qaiser Sheikh said that negative growth witnessed by the Large Scale Manufacturing sector was indeed an eye opener and a wake up call to the government. He said that the industry needs cheaper electricity to keep the units operational and to complete the export orders well within the given timeframe but only because of the shortage of electricity the exports are not up to the mark.
