HCCI rejects water tariff increase for industries

Hyderabad: Hyderabad Chamber of Commerce and Industries (HCCI) President Adeel Siddiqui has termed the Sindh Industrial Trading Estate’s (SITE) decision to raise the fixed water supply charges to industries injustice especially when an effluent treatment plant (ETP) was not present in the SITE area.

In a statement, the HCCI president said SITE had exceeded its jurisdiction and the decision was taken without approval from its board of directors. He added that even today, the SITE area faced water shortage, due to which industrialists had to pay heavily to buy water for their units

Siddiqui said drainage lines in the area were filled with heaps of garbage, choking the sewerage infrastructure. He lamented that rainwater always entered industries and affected expensive equipment worth billions of rupees

He urged the industries secretary and SITE managing director to pay serious attention to Hyderabad’s industries. He added that the government had imposed new taxes rather than providing facilities to the industries.