LAHORE: Economic growth is directly linked with energy therefore government should take every possible initiative to ensure cheap and sufficient electricity for the manufacturing sector otherwise it would not be able to achieve the desired economic goals.
This was stated by the President of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) Sheikh Muhammad Arshad, Senior Vice President Almas Haider and Vice President Nasir Saeed while speaking at the meeting of LCCI Executive Committee here on Tuesday.
They said that power outages have become a bigger threat for the growth of manufacturing sector that is the base of economic structure of the country.
The LCCI office-bearers that business community does not have any doubts about the seriousness of present regime in solving the energy crisis as it has already started a number of power projects but there is a dire need of their completion in the shortest possible time as an acute shortage of electricity is hitting the economic activities hard.
The LCCI President Sheikh Muhammad Arshad said that the timely completion of hydropower projects was vital for mitigating water and power shortfall. They said that due to longer hour power cuts the investment scenario is being spoiled in the country and so much so existing industrial units have curtailed their productions.
He said that government should exploit all available options to stop unscheduled power cuts which are hitting the economic activities hard. He said that prolonged power outages in the industrial areas are jacking up the graph of unemployment particularly hitting the daily wagers hard.
The LCCI president said that the most of industrial units had already reduced their working hours. This had led to increased level of raw-material wastage and making production process non-profitable. Now the leading industrial units were experiencing losses despite being managed professionally.
Sheikh Muhammad Arshad said that the shortage of electricity had already caused flight of capital and relocation of industrial units to the countries like Bangladesh and Malaysia besides reducing government revenues drastically.
He said that the government should share its energy plan with the Lahore Chamber of Commerce & Industry.
The LCCI President said that the government should understand that economic well being is a must. He said that Unemployment and industrial closures always give birth to lawlessness and anarchy. Therefore, the government should understand the ground realities and reset its priorities as far as power generation is concerned. He said that the consumers of the efficient distribution companies with lowest line losses and the highest recovery ratio are being treated unfairly.
The LCCI Senior Vice President Almas Haider said the private sector is engine of the growth and in the developed countries it is facilitated to the maximum but in Pakistan circumstances are quite the other way round.
The LCCI office-bearers urged the Prime Minister to take notice of this gravity of the situation and act promptly to save industrial and social fabric of the country. He also urged the government to complete water and hydropower projects in the shortest possible as the energy demand is growing with every passing day.
He said that promotion of alternate energy resources would definitely curtail the burden from conventional energy system therefore government should bring down duties and taxes on the equipment being used for power generation through alternate energy resources.
The LCCI President briefed the Executive Committee regarding LCCI Council on Kalabagh dam that would pave way for early completion of this mega project. He said that the Council would have experts, technocrats, business community leaders, ex-officio and representatives of the Chambers and other trade bodies in its fold.
