Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry has strongly protested against power tariff hike of Rs.1.02 per unit allowed by National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) on Saturday to power distribution companies, which is in addition to government plan of making another 6 percent increase in electricity rates from 1st April 2010 on the pretext of monthly fuel adjustment formula.

ICCI called upon NEPRA to immediately withdraw this decision and urged the government to desist from making further 6 percent increase as such measures will push trade and industry out of business bringing the whole economy to a grind halt.

Chairing a hurriedly called meeting of businessmen, Zahid Maqbool, President, ICCI said “it seemed that government is totally ignorant of highly negative repercussions of such callous measures which are being taken to fulfill the agenda of foreign lenders while ignoring the economic interests of the country.”

He said that such anti-business and anti-people steps were not expected of a democratic government whose major slogan was to create a welfare state. He warned that these hikes will cripple the whole economy apart from unleashing a new wave of high inflation in the country forcing people to come on streets.

He said that government has already increased power tariffs by almost 35 percent since October 2009 which has exorbitantly pushed up the cost of doing business due to which manufacturing and industrial activities are badly suffering, exports are falling and people are groaning. He said the fresh increase will prove a last nail in the coffin of economy.

Zahid Maqbool said Pakistan has plenty of potential to produce cheap energy to which government has not paid due attention so far. He said many studies have indicated that Pakistan can generate 100,000 MW of electricity from coal, 70,000 MW from hydro and 50,000 MW from wind source apart from enormous renewable energy potential such as solar, biogas and waste etc. He was wondered as to what was preventing the government from exploiting these more economical and abundant natural energy resources to make Pakistan  an energy surplus country. 

Businessmen said that adequate power supply was the key to achieving sustainable economic growth. They said without energy, Pakistan’s industrial sector will continue to suffer while a shrinking industrial base will continue to decrease exports creating more joblessness. Therefore, government should pay priority attention to improve power situation.

They said that successive governments in the country have reiterated the commitment to increase the private sector’s participation to solve the problem of energy sector, but no concrete measures have been taken so far. They said government should patronize and encourage entrepreneurs through lucrative incentives to invest in the power sector so that the country could come out of current power crisis to put the economy on sustainable growth trajectory.