Businesses upset on tariffs plan

KARACHI: SITE industrialists on Friday expressed concerns on government proposal to increase power and gas tariff, and appealed Prime Minister Imran Khan not to increase tariffs in the view of ongoing financial crises due to Covid-19 pandemic, so that industrial production continues uninterrupted.

A meeting of industrialists was held at the SITE Association of Industry to deliberate upon the press conference held by the federal information minister and special assistant to the PM on petroleum.

It was attended by SITE Association of Industry Patron Zubair Motiwala, SITE President Abdul Hadi,

and former presidents Jawed Bilwani and Saleem Parekh. Industrialists reminded the PM that circular debt was accumulating because of line losses, theft, pilferage, and cross subsidisation given to some sectors, and therefore, it was unfair to recover this amount from honest consumers.

They criticised the ministry for not briefing the PM on the reasons behind accumulation of circular debt, and instead recommending a policy that would bring the circular debt to zero level without addressing the shortcomings in the power and gas sectors.

Industry paid more than 98 percent of their dues, while unaccounted for gas (UFG) in the industrial sector was less than two percent. On the other hand, UFG, theft and pilferages of other sectors were huge and in the domestic sector, it was 40 percent.