Muhammad Shakeel Munir, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) has slammed the government decision to make yet another hike in the prices of petroleum products within one month taking them to historic higher level that would entail harmful consequences for business sector and unleash a new wave of high inflation for the common man making his life more miserable. He urged that the government should immediately withdraw this unwise decision to save the businesses and the people from deep troubles. He was speaking as chief guest at a dinner reception hosted by Bilal Younis, CEO of Bilal Enterprises in honor of ICCI Office Bearers. Jamshaid Akhtar Sheikh Senior Vice President, Muhammad Faheem Khan Vice President ICCI, Mian Akram Farid Chairman Founder Group, Khalid Javed, Ejaz Abbasi, Baser Daud, Tahir Abbasi, Muhammad Naveed, Ashfaq Chatha, Saeed Khan, Khalid Mehmood, Azhar ul Islam, Raja Imtiaz, Sheikh Abdul Waheed, Iftikhar Anwar Sethi, Tahir Mahmood, Ms. Parveen Khan, Javed Iqbal and others were present at the occasion.
Muhammad Shakeel Munir said that only in October 2021, the government has hiked the price of petrol by Rs.14.49/litre, high speed diesel by Rs.14.44/litre, LDO by Rs.17.66/litre and kerosene oil by Rs.18/litre which is not justified by any standards. He said that the people were already facing great difficulties due to high inflation and the business community was still struggling to combat the impact of Covid-19 pandemic. In these tough times, the government has made an exorbitant hike in POL products that would burden people with very high inflation besides making a manifold increase in cost of doing business. He urged that in these tough times, the government should avoid taking such harsh decisions and focus on promoting ease of doing business to steer the economy out of current challenges.
  Jamshaid Akhtar Sheikh Senior Vice President and Muhammad Faheem Khan Vice President ICCI said that petrol price has gone up from around Rs.103/litre to Rs.137.79 /litre and that of diesel from around Rs.110/litre to Rs.134.48/litre from January to October 2021, which was a record increase. They said that the government was also considering increasing prices of electricity and gas under pressure of IMF, but such anti-business measures would jeopardize the survival of businesses and put an unbearable burden on people.
  Mian Akram Farid, Chairman Founder Group said that the repeated hikes in the prices of POL products and utility tariffs would shatter the confidence of investors who needed consistency in prices and tariffs to make investment in Pakistan. He stressed that the government should withdraw all taxes and petroleum levy on POL products and withdraw the latest hike in the prices of POL products to provide some relief to the people.