Observer Report
Islamabad
The Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) on Saturday urged the government to making cut in power tariffs and prices of Pakistan Oilfields Limited products to bring down cost of business expenditure and help nurturing business activities in the country.
They expressed concerns on increasing prices of petroleum products and termed it against the interests of businesses and the general public, adding it would increase inflation and business expenditure. It would ultimately make it more difficult for the business community to revive the business and economic activities in the country, they added.
Sardar Yasir Ilyas Khan, President, ICCI said that people and businesses were already struggling to combat the impact of Covid-19 pandemic and in these tough conditions, increasing price of petrol by Rs.3.20 and diesel by Rs.2.95 per per litre would create problems for the economy. He said hike in POL products and utility tariffs would impact the confidence of investors as they needed predictable and consistent policies and tariffs to make investment in the country.
He urged that government to make significant cut in taxes and levy on petroleum products to give relief to the businesses. He urged that the government to focus on renewable energy sources for power generation that would provide cheap energy and help bring down inflation as well.
