Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) has called upon the Government to take urgent measures to resolve CNG crisis and save economy from further troubles.

Yassar Sakhi Butt, President Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry, made these remarks during a meeting with representatives of CNG Association. He criticized the government’s failure to manage the ongoing gas crisis, terming it disastrous for the country’s industry.

He was of the view that Government has imposed heavy taxes on CNG that would ruin all the investments made in the sector. Therefore, Government should take urgent measures to resolve CNG crisis instead of levying heavy taxes.

ICCI President said that this industry has attracted huge private sector investment as almost 70 percent CNG stations are owned by private sector generating lot of jobs and economic activities. However, government decision of CNG load-shedding has plunged the whole economy into crisis like situation apart from creating acute problems for daily commuters, he maintained.

Yassar Sakhi Butt said that due to closure of CNG stations not only transportation fares would went up further but to survive operators of public transport vehicles would be reverted back to use of diesel and owners of private cars to motor gasoline which would increase oil import bill of the country substantially. Thus, Government should have visualized the situation keeping in view the fastest growth in CNG sector and should have done proper planning to avoid the eruption of this crisis.

ICCI President also urged the Government to address the problem of transport fare as common man has been facing numerous problems due to high fares. He said the Government must resolve the CNG crisis and should develop and implement a long-term strategy to overcome the energy crisis and inflationary pressure.