ISLAMABAD: The business community of federal capital has urged the government to withdraw 67 per cent surge in the prices of gas tariff and GST on petroleum prices to reduce the cost of doing business.
Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) President Muzzamil Hussain Sabri, in a statement, said that the government has increased gas prices for industry, power and fertilizer sectors by 23 percent and for commercial consumers by around 10 percent, which is highest increase in recent history. He said these measures would lead to hefty rise in production cost, make indigenous products very uncompetitive in international market and badly affect exports causing harmful consequences for the overall economy.
He said industry was already paying high rate of Gas Infrastructure Development Cess and additional hike in gas tariff as well as taxes on POL products would make the survival of industry unsustainable and badly discourage new investment in the country. He said the new increase would take the cost of gas for industry from $0.96 per MMBTU to $6.72 per MMBTU, which is not viable at a time when the trade and industry was facing serious problems of loadshedding and other unfavorable factors.
Muzzamil Sabri said the recent hike in gas tariff would put Pakistan in a highly disadvantageous position compared to its competitors in exports market as the gas tariff in our country are more than 80 percent from Sri Lanka, more than 40 percent India and around 55 percent Vietnam. He questioned how Pakistan could compete in the exports market with such huge difference in input cost compared to other countries.
