Staff Reporter
Karachi
The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry president Mian Anjum Nisar has opposed the government’s move of power subsidies’ withdrawal just for the revival of the stalled IMF programme, demanding rather substantial reduction in energy rates in line with the drastic fall in international oil prices. FPCCI President said that the change in subsidies regime, amid increasing financial miseries on account of COVID-19, would hit at least 18 million consumers out of a total 27 million electricity connection holders across the country, as the cost of doing business has already increased manifold, leading to slowdown in economy and unemployment in the country. He called for taking decisions after consultation with the stakeholders in this regard, instead of depending solely on the available fiscal space. Resisting the hike of almost 110% in gas prices, he endorsed the decision of OGRA for rejecting the demand of gas utilities to increase gas prices rather reducing the rates by almost 6% for consumers, which is a good step. He said that the gas companies had recently sought the huge surge in gas tariff by up to Rs622 per mmbtu, putting an additional burden of Rs290 billion on industrial as well as domestic consumers, leading to further jump in cost of production. He said that instead of covering losses and enhancing the efficiencies, the gas utilities of SSGC and Sui NGPL were planning to shift their burden to the consumers.