PRIME Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday unveiled a major power bill relief package for industries with extra incentives for small and medium businesses, doing away with peak hours charging and slashing the tariff on additional electricity consumed. Under the package, SMEs using additional power than their consumption of last year will be given a discount of fifty percent on extra units till June next year . In addition, all the industries will be provided electricity at a discount of twenty-five percent on the additional units they use based on their previous bills for the next three years.
To make our products competitive in the world market, it was really need of the hour to extend incentives to the industries that reduce their production cost. The relief package will really encourage the industries to expand their operations and production. However, it will have been far better if the package would have been extended without any condition or ifs and buts. Already there is a lockdown situation in most parts of the world due to the second wave of Covid-19 which really will have its impact on the demand of different products. The question is why the industries will use the additional units of electricity when they have no extra orders. We, therefore, will suggest the government to review its decision and do away with the condition attached with the package so that the industries could flourish in real sense. The package should be provided without counting on the number of units consumed by the industries. Similarly, it is really important to provide incentives to the agriculture sector especially the small farmers. We are an agrarian country but today the situation is that we are importing wheat and sugar from other countries. In order to bolster production of important crops such as wheat, cotton, sugarcane and others, we will have to reduce the input cost of the farmers and encourage them to bring more land under cultivation.