SITE Association of Industry Chairman Dr Arshad A Vohra has taken a strong exception to the recent increase in electricity tariff for industrial, commercial and bulk consumers of all distribution companies including the Karachi Electric Supply Company Limited (KESCL) with immediate effect. He said the power tariff hike would increase the cost of doing business and render the country’s exports uncompetitive in world markets and resultantly the countries with less production cost would capture global markets presently dominated by Pakistani exporters. This increase will mostly benefit textile industries of other countries at the cost of Pakistani industry as their products would become more attractive in the world market. He further said the government should have taken all the stakeholders on board and understand the difficulties of increase in electricity rates before making any drastic changes in the electricity tariff, the one sided decision will result in massive loss to trade and industry and country’s exports. The government is not in a position to provide uninterrupted power and gas supply to the industry due to which industry was faced with higher cost on operating below the capacity. The decision of hefty increase in power tariff is bound to damage the manufacturing sector and exports, he lamented.
