Demanding its immediate withdrawal, they said the hike in gas tariff and CNG prices would badly affect business activities and create difficulties for the common man also. They added that the increase would set a new trend of inflation, which had already exceeded 20 percent in last few months and further increase in petroleum and power tariff would make the lives of people miserable.
They said industries are already closing down due to unfavourable conditions, non-availability of gas and electricity, prevailing law and order situation, increased raw material prices and fast depleting PKR value against the dollar. They added that this increase would add fuel to fire. They said that 'brutal' implementation of 'brutal' proposals would accelerate the flight of capital that would break the backbone of the economy.
They said Karachi industries are already operating below their capacity and suffering huge production losses due to 8-hour load shedding and low gas pressure and complete closure on Sundays. "The government must understand that massive increase in gas tariff would discourage investors as they might look for investment opportunities in other countries offering better investment climate," they added.
They said the business community was awaiting reduction in gas tariff as per the government statement but now it has unilaterally decided to increase tariff to an exorbitant level, which is in no way affordable to the industry. They said textile export is a main source of earning precious foreign exchange, as it contributes over 60 percent to total exports of the country, but unfortunately high operational cost, hike in power and gas tariffs have slowed the export activities.
Chairman. Federal B Area Association of Trade and Industry, Masroor Alvi expressing serious concern over increase in gas tariff, said it will have multiple impact on cost of production as price of power generation will also go up beside increase in transportation charges in near future. He said it is not known whether industries will get uninterrupted supply of gas and power after increase in tariffs or not.
North Karachi Association of Trade and Industry (NKATI) Chairman Abdul Rasheed Fodderwala said increase in gas tariff alone will have 6 to 7 percent increase in manufacturing cost. He feared that power tariff will also go up beside increase in transpiration charges which also have serious impact on cost of production.
He said missive increase in gas tariff indicates that the government neither has any long-term policy nor short-term policy. A large number of units have already closed down whereas other are on the verge of closure due to non-availability of gas and electricity.
He said at present industrialists are facing 8 hours long power load shedding beside low gas pressure due to which only one shift is working in a day. Site Association of Industry (SAI) Chairman Mohammad Irfan Moton said recent hike in power tariff is bound to jack up the manufacturing cost by another 6 to 7 percent of Pakistani merchandise.
He said unprecedented increase in gas prices would hit exports hard as Pakistan is already facing tough competition in the international market. Replying to a question, he said several complaints of low gas pressure have been received from different industrial areas. He said due to high operational costs, exporters are unable to compete in the global market. Cost of doing business is enormously high.